should i be keeping receipts?

Even if I do local work, I keep everything related to this work to create a budget for myself. It can get expensive on the road.

That said, you will take per diem for your days on the road which will cover your meals and other expenses.

 

$59 a day/you can claim 80% of that for the days you are truly away from your house. The days you leave/return you can only claim 75%.

If I remember correctly anything below $25 you do not need a receipt.

Anything that is truck related you can also claim. There are other threads on here that go more in depth on this.

It would not hurt to start a spreadsheet for this or keep records of days away and days going/leaving.

If you do claim Per Diem it is very wise to keep a copy of your logs. If Electronic, get copies. Keep them with your tax records. I was audited for Per Diem 3 - 4 years after I filed.

 

The way I figured it is: since I don't even come close to $10,000 dollars (last year's standard deduction for not itemizing) in per diem and truck expenses, I didn't figure it was worth it to itemize. I just took the standard deduction.

This year, I'm a rookie truck owner with a truck note, and everything. I've still not spent anywhere close to $10,000 in maintenance and per diem (which will be tiny, since I am home every night now, and for the first four months this year, I spent maybe 2 nights a week in the truck), but with the note and fuel and all the taxes and insurance, I will have spent much more than $10,000 this year. I still haven't saved every scrap of recpt paper, though. I guess that's on me.

Gotta get in the habit of saving them all. Especially, next year (for me).

 

If you claim per diem the IRS requires you to have some form of accounting to prove date and place. Keeping receipts in a shoebox or scanned to a file will satisfy that. The chances of having to prove your case are slim like if you got audited.

As a company driver unless you have a mortgage and a heap of medical bills you will most likely do like andre said and take the standard deduction. That case you don't need receipts. You might save them the first year to give yourself a better idea.

To clarify that for him a little more Mark that is with an overnight trip involved. Local driving leaving and returning the same day doesn't count.

 

Wow your lucky..i spent 10k within 2 week of buying my truck for new rubber, new seats, new rims, new mattress, ops eco pure, nice radio, nice cb, new dash pieces....

But, in answer to OP's question, You dont need to keep track of meals because that is covered by perdium. Anything else, keep track of. Dont forget to write off cdl school as an educational expense. 3000 dollar CDL school made my taxes go from i owe them 600 to they give me 1000. I changed income brackets, but it can be major.

 

If you're taking your 10 hour breaks at home you will not get to deduct those days for per diem. Which sucks. Might catch me some heat but creative logging here in this scenario gets you a tax deduction and no-one will ever be the wiser. Stay current on your logs until you get to the shipper from your house (10 hour break there), then edit as necessary upon arrival at the shipper.

I stand corrected, you guys are saying one can only deduct 75% of days when you leave or arrive back home from the road? Did not know that, thought it was zero. The above still applies, why take 75% when you can 100%...

 

I kept all rects in boxes. The day the IRS called, I hauled them in and he said, looks like they are all there, Goodbye!

 

Log book since it is a Federal Form and required by DOT, IRS will accept the Log Book as a form of accounting of where you were.

I finally got them to agree to x amount of pages versus 365. I send them one page for each month for the that year.

What they did require of me was a letter on company letterhead stating what each company did/did not reimburse for driver expenses. It would be a good suggestion to get a letter from the company when you are working for them. I ended up paying a Lawyer $400 to get two letters.

Agreed, Local driving does not count. If you were gone 6 weeks, the day you return home you claim 75%. The day you leave to go back on the road you claim 75%. Each night you are gone OTR from your place of abode you claim 80%.

Normally I ran 300 days out of the year. A rough figure would place Per Diem about $14,000 off of gross.

Keep your ducks in a row. My audit took about 18 months since everything is snail mail. Anything you send them, send registered/return receipt requested. Once the IRS gets it, it may take them 30-40 days to process what you send in. Keep copies of anything you send to the IRS.

 

80% not 100%.