- According to the Internal Revenue Service, expenses eligible for federal per diem tax deductions include meals, lodging, room service, dry cleaning and other laundering services, tips for service providers and travel-related incidentals. Lavish expenses and personal expenditures do not qualify. Truckers are eligible for per diem if a covered expense occurs during travel away from home as defined by IRS Publication 17. According to the publication, travel away from home includes travel that requires a driver to sleep while away and to be away from home longer than an ordinary day of work.
- Truckers may choose to claim actual expenses for travel or otherwise claim the standard daily per diem deduction in place of actual costs. Those who choose to claim actual costs must keep meticulous records and receipts, and may only deduct 50 percent of the cost of meals while traveling for work. Those who claim the standard deduction need not keep records of actual costs, but must still have records of their time of travel and destination, as well as the business purpose of their trip.
- In order to claim a travel expense deduction, drivers must itemize deductions on Schedule A instead of taking the standard deduction. IRS Form 2106 and Form 2106-EZ help truckers calculate deductible travel expenses, and the total transfers to Schedule A to be filed with Form 1040. The IRS only allows taxpayers to claim business travel expenses that exceed the value of 2 percent of adjusted gross income. Effective for the 2010 tax year, the standard per diem rate for the continental United States is $70 per night for lodging and $46 for meals and incidentals. However, IRS Publication 1542 lists exceptions for multiple localities within the U.S. with high costs of travel. Truckers who travel to these areas receive a higher standard per diem deduction as specified by the IRS.
- Though many truck drivers are self-employed, some work for employers that pay all of or a portion of their travel expenses related to work. The IRS forbids truckers from claiming a per diem deduction or travel expense deduction for expenses for which employer provides a reimbursement. If an employer reimburses a portion of travel expenses, truckers cannot claim the standard per Dpiem deduction, and must instead claim only the portion of actual travel expenses that were not reimbursed by an employer.