Tax Questions regarding Per Diem allowed-
 

Hi everyone, and thank you for reading my question, as I realize the this issue is beaten to death, but I could not find the answer I needed in any of the posts I searched through. (I did look first, I promise)

My husband is a company driver and is not paid a per diem by his company. He was told by another driver with his same company, that because they travel to the North East (he mostly runs NY, CT, RI and Mass) that he can claim $95 per diem for each day he is out. The accountant I spoke with today said he can claim $59 at 100%, but I didn't discuss area with her, I was just trying to find out which receipts, etc I should be keeping.

I have looked online and cannot find any amount other than the $59, or any information leading me to believe that per diem varies depending on where you drive. I'm wondering if the other drivers were just pulling his leg since it has been years since he's driven OTR. (We've been together 4 years, but he has driven locally until he started with Gaines in June. He drove OTR for 6 years before we were together- so I am really new to this, he is getting a refresher, lol.)

Hi and welcome. First off your going to find a lot of differing opinions on per diem but the ONLY one that matters concerns hours of service (HOS) regulated employees. It's really simple any period of time that hubby is away from home and required to take the mandatory 10 hr break is considered 1 day, the day he leaves and the day he comes home are each counted as 3/4 (75%)of a day. So if he left on Monday and comes home on Friday he has 3/4 of a day for Mon. 3 full days for Tue.-thur. and another 3/4 for Friday for a totle of 4.5 days. Per deim is for the cost of meals on the road and for HOS people a flat amount and is NOT figured by zip code!
Now I'm embarressed to admit but I forget the exact $$ that you can claim for each day but it is approx $59. You do NOT need to save reciepts for this just have his log book for proof. The reciepts you do want to save are for non-meal items, motels,parking,tools,cleaning stuff& ATM fees!

So, the motel- should he get one instead of sleeping in the truck, is not included in the $59, but is extra? Hm, nice to know if he ever has to get a room- do I understand that correctly? I wonder if they were counting hotels as the extra $.

He usually leaves Sunday morning and is home Friday night or Saturday morning. Sometimes he is home one night in the middle of the week, depending on if they have him switch out in Jersey a few times or come all the way back to NC once. Thank you for letting me know how to count the days, I wondered about that.

I dont want to get all the way to tax time and find out I should have kept or recorded this or that and didn't.

Thanks so much! If anyone else has heard of IRS allowing $95 per day, please let me know.

The per deim is for the cost of food while away from home but cause you have to eat at home to that's why the IRS's rule is 85% of so much per day( I'm not sure the exact figures) get a good tax preparer that does trucker taxes, don't rely on some one like Hr block they do the "one size fits all". In short ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING he buys for the truck, keep the reciepts, even the cell phone bills if it's used for the biz but be careful with that one, the IRS is cracking down on that so I don't even bother claiming that.

PER DIEM is definately not at $95/day. save all non food reciepts.

I'll have some info for you on this this weekend. ONE is correct, that $95 figure is wrong no matter what it includes or where the area is. In fact, it's interesting to me that 95 is 59 backwards. Wonder if someone is dislexic?

I am, toss in old timers memory and it's all down h i l l . Thank god the key board keeps the D's & B's correct not to mention the #3 & E's you should see my hand writing

I believe the deduction this year went up to $59/day. I think the actual rule reads that you can take 80% up to $59/day without keeping receipts. If you want to keep track of your receipts and they go higher then you can take the actual deduction. It is cleaner to just take the deduction. If you want to read the actual rule you can to to www.irsforms.gov.

But if a company pays me a per diem then I can't claim this on my taxes, right?

Right