Per Diem

It is like a daily allowance on food, being away from home. I believe it is 57 or 59 buck per day. If you are a company man you mayneed to ask them how much they pay.

 

I do not know todays per Diem amount, but here is how it works. You must be away from home for a 24 hour period.

So let's "say" the per diem per 24 hour away from home is $50.

ok, so let's say you are away from home for a total of 4 days, equaling $200.

From you gross earnings, the company takes out the $200, sets that aside, then you get taxed on the remainder monies you earned.

When that is done, they put back that $200. this way, you are only getting taxed on the balance of your gross earnings, as you needed money to eat/live on the road.


Several points here, YOU MUST document your per diem days and let your company know.

YOU MUST be away from your home for a period of 24 hours.

12 hours, 8 hours, 22 hours, does not cut it.

 

I still run paper logs, but am home daily, so no need for me on per diem.

However, what you can do is go into your elog and bring up your past x number of days on the road, count them, go from there.

If you get a job with a company that has paper logs, just count up the days you were out at 24 hours each day.


Now since I have no elogs, and many here do, I gotta wonder if the per diem is now done automatically and sent to payroll?

Others will chime in with this information.

 

You just have to track it ... You can use your paper logs, copies of your statements showing your dispatches, just log your away days on a calendar or simply keep track on a spread sheet ... people over think the IRS rules

 

Me personally, I never over-think the I freaking RS.

There will be some however that may over-think, but I simply care not. (since I am home daily)

 

Large carriers that pay perdiem do it on a cpm basis. So say 8 cpm of your pay is perdiem. In order for them to do a perdiem pay structure it legally has to be less than the max allowed by the government. Which is like 80% of 49 dollars a day, cannot remember actual dollar amount at the moment.
When you claim it on taxes you take all your days out, multiply by the amount per day 49 or whatever it is at the moment, then multiply that amount by .8 and it will show you what you can claim.
Remember, when doing a tax write off like this the actual amount it will effect your return is based on your tax rate. So a 17,000 dollar deduction will give about a 3500-4500 dollar addition on your return.

Many drivers think that company perdiem is a rip off. Since you can claim the money at the end of the year anyway, and it lowers your gross. But that really depends on what they are paying on it, and you can still claim the difference on what they pay and what you could have claimed. Just do the math as I said before and subtract the amount you already received.
8 cpm in a 120k mile year is 9600 dollars. Much more than you would have gotten back on your taxes for it. And you could still claim whatever is remaining.
It will lower your pay for unemployment and for loans etc.

Most company's that offer it do it automatically, so you don't claim to them. You just need to check your logs at the end of the year to get the days out for taxes, and save the logs in the rare case of an audit.

 

Daily amount is $59.

On the day you return/leave your domicile you can claim 75% of $59. You do not have to be away for 24 hours.
On the days you are away from your domicile you can claim 80% of $59. These days you are away for the 24 hours.

Companies take a cent amount out. They usually base it upon your loads since they cannot figure the amounts above. So for each load you will have $x.xx dollars shown for per diem. They take the amount out before they figure taxes out. This gives the company a break in taxes and other items they have to pay based upon your earnings.

On your pay stub it should show you want you earned for regular pay and for per diem. Keep track of the latter.

Figure out how many days you arrived/departed your domicile = X days times (80% x 59.00)
Figure out how many days you were on the road = X days times (80% x 59.00)

Add the two together, then subtract what the company has paid you in Per Diem. The difference you can still claim on taxes.

The company will never exceed your Per Diem, if they do then they are dropped off the IRS program.

And YES keep copies of your logs for the year you claimed Per Diem. If you are on Electronic Logs, the company should provide a means for you to retain your logs.

DO NOT rely on the company to keep your logs. The company only has to keep the logs for x months and then they can purge the records. You only have to keep the current +7 days.

But, find a means to keep your logs. I was audited in 2013 for 2008. I had my paper logs and although they only requested 3 pages of my logs, if I was unable to provide the logs I would have owned back taxes and penalties. One other item they asked for was a letter from the company(s) showing what expenses they reimbursed the driver for.