Per diem

If the company is paying for your hotel then I believe that you can take the cost of the hotel and deduct it from the standard per diem rate or the local rate found in the IRS tables and claim that amount. You can not mix and match, however. If you decide to take the standard then you must take the standard for the entire year. This is a good question and I have not heard a reply from someone to something similar to this.

 

Best to ask a cpa. Sounds like your not going to be using a 1040EZ. I advise friends and family who are going standard or long form to just pay a tax service. Find an independent who stands behind their work. Like if audited they will meet with auditor and explain their work and cover fines and penalties if you lose. Stay away from h&r block, fly by night firms and ghetto firms that promise huge returns and fast cash returns. Instant cash is a lian against your return and come with high cuts for the firm lianung the money. If the irs denies the return for any reason you owe the money back to the tax firm. Ive never waited more than 3weeks for the irs to direct deposit my return.

Just my opinion.

Sent from somewhere out there

 

Per diem has nothing to do with the cost of a hotel or who pays for it! Per diem is for FOOD thats why you get to claim it not your boss. If your gone long enough that your required to take a HOS break then you claim it.

 

I see what you mean. I've gone around and around with people on this one as I now also work a majority within 150miles and am home almost every night. Your log does not have anything to do with it. The nearest Iv'e come to an answer is that you can pro-rate the days that you are gone depending on how long you are away from the terminal. Say you are gone for 8 hrs. If the standard is $60/day then you can deduct 1/3rd of that ie. $20 because you were gone 1/3rd of a day. Some say you can not deduct anything because you are returning to your home terminal everyday. Others say that they just keep the receipts for everything they buy while on the road like meals and work related items such as gloves, rulers etc and deduct that amount. I've gotten answers like the above from several different CPA's and the IRS isn't much help on this either.

 

You are wrong.
Internal Revenue Bulletin: 2011-47 Section 4 "Per diem allowance. If a payor pays a per diem allowance in lieu of reimbursing actual lodging, meal, and incidental expenses incurred or to be incurred by an employee for travel away from home, the amount of the expenses that is deemed substantiated for each calendar day is equal to the lesser of the per diem allowance for that day or the amount computed at the federal per diem rate (see section 3.02 of this revenue procedure) for the locality of travel for that day (or partial day, see section 6.04 of this revenue procedure). See section 4.06(1) of this revenue procedure for transition rules.

See where it says "lodging"?

also, see the part about "partial day" in parenthesis near the end? This is what I used to calculate a partial day away from home and several cpa's have agreed although not all.
I am not a tax accountant, lawyer or CPA so do not follow my advice on this. Consult a professional with experience in the trucking field.

 

There are also a number of threads on this board including 2011 Per Diem which is what got me here in the first place. Read them before you do your taxes.