Legally Take Per Diems On Home Time!

Legally Take Per Diems On Home Time!

NOTE: This page is from the Truckers Tax Haven web site.

As unbelievable as this may sound, some truckers legally qualify for travel deductions on home time. Do you?

In order to qualify for this, you need to have a tax home that's different from your family home. Many truckers do.

First, be sure you know what your tax home is.

Beware of Misinformation

Most of the information on Truckers Tax Haven is information you won't find anywhere else. We made an exception for travel expenses because there's so much wrong information out there. Some of it even comes from "experts" who should know better.

Use This Simple Chart

Besides having a tax home that's different from your family home, you need two other things in order to legally take travel deductions for your home time:

1. You need to bring a load into the general area and take a load out.
2. Other than your reset time, you need to be available for loads out while you are home.

Most truckers will be able to easily tell if their home time qualifies for travel deductions by using the simple chart below.



You can also use our Truckers Home Time Per Diem Calculator.

From IRS Publication 463

For this subject, we took quotes from IRS Publication 463. Except for some minor formatting, the actual IRS quotes aren't edited.

We also translated some of those quotes into plain English, as they apply to truckers.

Tax Home Different From Family Home

This is a must. If your tax home is the same as your family home, you don't qualify for this.

Not All Home Time Qualifies For Travel Deductions

The first IRS example, below, shows that this doesn't work if you deadhead home or are home on vacation.

That doesn't sound very promising. However, very few truckers do their home time this way.

Home Time That Qualifies For Travel Deductions

Most truckers bring loads close to home when they take home time, then take loads out within a few days. In between, they layover at home doing their resets while waiting for loads back out. Their situation is much more like Example 2, below.

That's very encouraging. Let's combine Examples 1 and 2 to fit how most truckers take their home time. We'll take most of the facts in Example 1, except instead of deadheading home, let's give the driver a load home from Phoenix to Tucson. While he's in Tucson, he'll layover and do a reset while waiting for a load out. Now his situation is like IRS Example 2, above, and his home time qualifies for travel deductions.

His tax home is still Phoenix. Obviously, his travel with loads to and from Tucson is work related, so that's deductible.

While he's laying over in Tucson, waiting for another load and doing a reset, he's away from his tax home, on business. So, he can claim his per diem while he's in Tucson.

What if he were there for a number of days? Is he standing by, waiting for a load out but getting regular emails from his dispatcher saying that there are no loads for him yet? Does he have a load out scheduled, but the pickup time's a few days away? Is so, he's there on business and can claim his per diem for those days.

What if he's just taking time off? If he's turning down loads out, he wouldn't be away from his tax home on business and couldn't claim his per diem for those days. You can't legally take travel deductions while on vacation.

BEWARE: Claiming tax deductions for your family residence (as IRS Example 2, above, suggests) is just asking for an audit, and probably isn't worth the effort or the risk. If your situation allows you to claim your per diem while you're on home time, take it and be grateful. Except for truckers, very few taxpayers get to do this.

No Travel Deductions For Time At Your Home Terminal

There's one key thing to be aware of in all this. When your tax home is your main place of business or work (usually your home terminal, as in IRS Example 1, above), you don't get to claim travel deductions while you're there. That's because you're not considered away from home.
So, don't hang around the terminal. Get out on the road and make money.

 

I posted [post=1544288]my answers[/post] on another thread that was more directly on this topic: [thread=122285]Per Diem on days you depart and return.[/thread]

 

Roadmedic, I always value your opinion, even when I don't agree with it.

What in the original position do you not agree with? Bear in mind that this only applies to people who have a different tax home than their residence home. Is it the logic that follows that you also disagree with, or just the original premise or having a different tax home than the residence?

 

That was about a different subject: where the tax home is.

This thread is about a different subject entirely: truckers with a tax home at their place of business, in certain circumstances, taking per diems on home time. It only applies to truckers who, as in the IRS example cited, have their tax home at a different location than their residence.

 

See [post=1546379] my reply here[/post].

I'm doing my best to keep posts on the thread topics.

Best,