Tax questions about over the road truck driving?

How does the tax credit work for the number of days spent on the road? Can a cell phone line be written off if used by the truck driver for work related calls, if so is it the whole monthly fee or only minutes used? Thanks for any info.

Tax questions about over the road truck driving?

That sounds like the per diem. That is not a tax credit, but a write off. The IRS gives you a set dollar amount that can be written off every day to cover food and lodging while on the road. You would need to fill out the 2106 form and a Schedule A to take advantage of this.

$60 per day can be deducted for lodging for travel days before October 1, and $70 for lodging on or after October 1. You must show proof that a charge was made for lodging. $39 can be deducted for meals and other expenses.

If you know exactly which cities you were in on which days, you may be able to take a high deduction. See Publication 1542 for a list of maximum per diems in different cities (see link below).

As for cell phones, you can write it off it is used for work purposes. If he was required to make business calls from the road (probably), then the portion of minutes that were used for work can be written off. If half of the calls were work related, then half of your cell phone bills can be written off. You can figure this out by looking at old cell phone bills. Each call is itemized, figure out which ones were work related and which ones were not.