Starting At 60 Years Young Am I Crazy.

I was under the impression it has more to do with how far away you are from your home terminal than a / your physical address. I'm definitely not a tax expert but that was my understanding. I'll try and look it up again but no promises. LOL!

JJ

Jim, you are dealing with two different groups that want your address. Both IRS and your state of residence want their piece of your pie, so you need a physical place to call home.

The company needs a place you live so they can route you home for home time. New England Logistics may not be interested in someone living in New Mexico. Don't try "But I'm going to live in my truck!", most companies don't want to deal with special situations.

Jim, you are dealing with two different groups that want your address. Both IRS and your state of residence want their piece of your pie, so you need a physical place to call home.

The company needs a place you live so they can route you home for home time. New England Logistics may not be interested in someone living in New Mexico. Don't try "But I'm going to live in my truck!", most companies don't want to deal with special situations.

Errol, I was talking about the IRS. I know most if not all of the companies want a physical address. Schneider for instance, won't move forward with the hiring process until I can give them one. I was under the impression that the deduction for food and or lodging expenses was based more on your distance from your home terminal , rather than the distance from your physical address. I believe it's something to the effect of around 100 miles or more.

My situation may be a little unique and I need to look into it a bit further. I'll most likely be based out of Las Vegas but I want to actually live in northern Arizona.

JJ

As OTR , per diem/your own deduction is when you are not at home for the morning or evening of a day.

Trucking Truth Wiki: Per diem pay for drivers

You must be away from home longer than the hours in a normal day's work. If your day starts and ends near where you live, you are not generally eligible for a per diem deduction.

Errol wrote:

As OTR , per diem/your own deduction is when you are not at home for the morning or evening of a day.

Trucking Truth Wiki: Per diem pay for drivers

You must be away from home longer than the hours in a normal day's work. If your day starts and ends near where you live, you are not generally eligible for a per diem deduction.

JJ responded:

OK, I think I see the discrepancy. I'm not really talking about per diem pay from your perspective company. I'm actually referring to the actual tax deduction(s) available for travel expenses if you decide to opt out of the per diem plan offered by your perspective company.

From the Jackson Hewitt web site:

You must determine the location of your "tax home" before you can determine whether you are traveling away from it.

Generally, your tax home is your regular place of business. It does not matter where you live. Your tax home includes the entire city or general area in which your business or work is located. If you have more than one regular place of business, your tax home is your main place of business. If you do not have a regular or a main place of business because of the nature of your work, your tax home may be the place where you regularly live. If you do not have a regular place of business or post of duty and there is no place where you regularly live, you are considered a transient and your tax home is wherever you work. For example, the tax home of a driver usually is where they begin and end a trip, even if they live somewhere else. A self-employed truck driver's tax home may be at the headquarters where the trucking assignments are given out, even if that is far from where they live.

Link to jacksonhewitt web site / Truckers:

JJ

So you don't want to be a "transient" because then you don't have a tax home/place to start your trips.

With a tax home, your first trip of the day ("to work ") is not part of your travels - it's a commute. So, from your tax home, you drive 20 miles to the terminal , check in, then you can start rolling those tax deductible miles. Same on the way back 4 weeks later: head for the terminal then commute home.

Huh? Who said I wasn't going to have an actual address and or live in my truck? LOL!

Besides that:

Generally, your tax home is your regular place of business. It does not matter where you live.

I would work for awhile with Stevens before going w lease. Living out of your truck is a good idea working for them. They will run you and you want to run they will run you harder. I was w them in 2005 and the I talked a lease drivers and there opinion was 50/50. Several loved it but all stated "you better plan on never seeing home". Also you run by there safety rules and they will shut you down if not compliant. But they do have nice trucks and will keep them in good condition for you.

First of all, thanks much for the reply! Yeah, everything at this point is research, consideration, and rollin' things around in my head as to different possibilities. But like I said before, I don't have anything tying me to home for any reason. As a matter of fact, I have lived in Colorado since 1974, but am originally from Texas and have been missing it for a number of years now. As I won't have an apartment or anything for the first few months, I would theoretically be able to pick about any place I wanted to live, I would think. I realize that I would have to check out some technicalities with my license if I decided to change states of legal residency, but don't have to worry about it now. Will wait until I have seen a bunch of the country to make that decision, I definitely know that I've had enough snow to last me a lifetime!! LOL And yes, I know I will run into a lot of it doing this job!

As to leasing, yeah, I probably will wait until I get things figured out (trip planning) and my weekly mileages are up where they need to be after going solo before I take the plunge. Also, one of the reasons I want to start training right away is that I will still have three months of full paychecks coming from the school district for June, July, and August while I'm getting my feet wet with CDL school and Stevens Transport's on-road training. Makes the small training paychecks not so much of a factor. I have wanted my own, really nice truck for a very long time though, so I am sure that I will do a lease at some point. And man is that KW T680 beautiful, or what?!?!?

Oh, a question for ChickieMonster. When you got your T680, did you get to choose the interior grade so that you got the fridge and stuff? I will definitely need that and a microwave and TV if I'm gonna live out of my truck.

Thanks again everyone, DSTURBD

Oh my goodness! I am just now reading this post and realizing someone asked me question! Whoops!

All of Transams trucks come with a fridge, inverter and tv package standard. I haven't bought a microwave yet but I have been using my crockpot with good results!

Sorry it took me so long to respond!

Hey there ChickieMonster, No worries on the response time. That's pretty awesome though on the trucks all having fridges, inverters, and TV's!! Also, from your avatar, it sure looks like your T680 must be relatively new! That's very cool that as a rookie you get a set-up like that!! I hope to get a similar set-up from Stevens. As I stated earlier, I can hang with low starting wages for the first six months or so (they have raises at 6 and 9 months the first year), but I really need a nice truck to keep me happy. I've driven all of the garbage I care to many years ago!!

Thanks again for the reply, DSTURBD

Hey there ChickieMonster, No worries on the response time. That's pretty awesome though on the trucks all having fridges, inverters, and TV's!! Also, from your avatar, it sure looks like your T680 must be relatively new! That's very cool that as a rookie you get a set-up like that!! I hope to get a similar set-up from Stevens. As I stated earlier, I can hang with low starting wages for the first six months or so (they have raises at 6 and 9 months the first year), but I really need a nice truck to keep me happy. I've driven all of the garbage I care to many years ago!!

Thanks again for the reply, DSTURBD

Teddy is a 2014. That's one of the older trucks in their fleet too. They replace all of their trucks before the warranty runs out.

All of their equipment is excellent. They really put some great perks into their trucks! They are a fully automatic fleet as well. While I learned how to drive on a 10 speed, I can honestly say that I would much rather drive an automatic now that I have figured out all the little quirks, like how to manually upshift on a downgrade when I'm stuck in the wrong gear.