If anybody is looking for it, I found it on the IRS website. the 2006 meal allowance is $52/day for truckdrivers. click on the link and scroll down to where it is dark boldface typed SPECIAL RATE FOR TRANSPORTATION WORKERS. Hope it helps, I have been trying to find out the amount for several days now.


http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch26.html#d0e59955

 

No, it isn't.

It is 75% of $52 per day for those who are subject to HOS rules, and that only applies to days that you are away from your tax home for the entire day. If you do not spend the night away from home, then you cannot deduct that day. (Some accountants will deduct a "partial day" for those days, but I haven't found any IRS documentation to support that).

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p463/ch06.html#d0e7933

 

ok so your saying we are supposed to save reciepts for all meals on the road and you can get a refund for it?

 

No.

The IRS gives you a standard deduction of $52 per day for meal allowance for every day you are away from your tax home. This is a deduction that you use when you itemize your taxes (which you should be doing as an OTR driver). Your log book is the only paperwork you need to support this deduction.

 

And, while DOT wants log pages kept for 6 months, IRS wants you to keep your log pages on file for just as long as you keep any other tax papers.

 

but if you are using taxcut on the computer, you add in the full amount of your meals and it automatically takes the 75% You still need the dollar amount to multiply by your days

 

thanks templedawg, i'd been looking for it also.

actually rev, according to the link he gave it does say you don't have to be away for the night, only if you get "sleep or rest".

if i understand your question correctly templedawg, all you need is your total meal expenditure and the pc program will automatically calculate the 75%. at least turbotax does, i'm assuming taxcut will too.

and yes you can save all your receipts and tally them up at the end of the year, but generally that will be a lessor number than the $52 @ day.

 

Standard tax software will not calculate it correctly. It will likely calculate it at the 50% level.

You shouldn't use that software anyway. It misses a lot of deductions that you are entitled to.

 

I just filed my tax returns using H&R Block on line and this part was really simple. It asked were you subject to DOT hours of service rules. I answered yes and it boosted my deductions percentage up from 50% to 75%. Then it was just a matter of adding up my logged days away from home X $52 and it spit out my deduction.

 

I'm shocked. The last time I used tax software (a long time ago), it automatically calculated it at the lower level, and did not give an option to calculate for HOS drivers. I ended up having to enter it in manually.