Tax Tips for Truck Drivers

As a long haul truck driver you spend most of your life on the road, and taking care of the little things can be problematic.  We have seen a sharp rise in long haul truckers who become our clients.  They typically have not filed tax returns for many years.  And their records to assist us in filing their tax returns are generally not good. Follow these tax tips for truck drivers to make sure you don’t over pay your taxes and get into trouble with the IRS.

#1 Retain your driver log for up to ten years.

This is a written log of when and where you’ve driven.  This will aid us in computing the many tax deductions needed to properly report your correct taxable income to the IRS. You don’t want to over report your income and there are many rules for an independent driver versus an employee driver.

#2 Keep a log of your expenses.

Keeping a log for each trip expenses would help greatly when preparing your tax return.  It takes only a few minutes each day.

An employee driver would only look to his out of pocket each year connected to his employment. This could be license fees or meals away from home which exceeded the per diem.  An independent driver has so much more to worry about. You need to keep track of such as truck mileage, repairs, fuel, lodging, meals, licenses, fees, insurance, and many other items which the driver pays for during the year.  When you don’t keep an account of these expenses each year, you will likely over report your taxable income because you have forgotten to claim an expense.

#3 Use a credit card for business expenses.

Credit card records can be easily transposed into a tax return.

Keep on truckin