Per diem for trucking works differently than for most other businesses. The IRS gives transportation workers who are subject to hours-of-service regulations a higher deduction rate and specific daily allowances that simplify expense tracking.

When you’re on the road overnight for work, you can deduct a set daily amount for meals and incidental expenses without keeping every receipt. For 2024, the rate is $69 per day for travel within the continental United States. The rate adjusts periodically, so check with your accountant at the start of each year.

The bigger benefit is the deduction percentage. Most businesses can only deduct 50% of meal expenses. Transportation workers, including truck drivers, get to deduct 80%. That makes a significant difference over a full year of driving.

How you handle per diem depends on your employment status. Company drivers often receive per diem as a tax-free reimbursement on top of wages. This money doesn’t count as taxable income and won’t show up on your W-2. The company claims the deduction instead. Owner-operators claim the per diem deduction themselves on Schedule C, calculating total qualifying days, multiplying by the daily rate, and deducting 80% of that amount.

A qualifying day requires being away from your tax home overnight due to Department of Transportation hours-of-service requirements. Your tax home is where your main place of business is located, not necessarily where your family lives. Trucking companies running local routes where drivers sleep at home each night don’t generate per diem days. Long hauls where drivers sleep in the cab or at a truck stop do.

Tracking is simpler than you might expect. You need to document the dates you were away from home and the general business purpose. Individual meal receipts aren’t required when using the per diem method. Your logbook or electronic logging device already captures most of what you need.

You can choose actual meal expenses instead of per diem, but you have to pick one method for the year. Most truckers find per diem simpler and usually more beneficial. If you spend less than $69 per day on food, per diem gives you a larger deduction than actual expenses would.

The mistake most drivers make is not tracking qualifying days consistently throughout the year. By tax time, you’re trying to reconstruct months of travel from memory or incomplete records. A bookkeeper for small business owners in trucking can help you set up a system to capture every qualifying day without relying on memory when it matters most.