Will per diem be restored for company drivers in 2025?

Support continues to grow for a bill that would restore the per diem tax deduction for company truck drivers.

On Tuesday, Dec. 3, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., became the 204^th co-sponsor of the Tax Fairness for Workers Act or HR4963.

The bill, which was introduced by Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., in July 2023, would allow workers to deduct common employment expenses, such as travel and uniform costs.

Employee truck drivers had been allowed to deduct per diem expenses from their taxes until the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 eliminated the provision. Stuart Hochfelder, an OOIDA life member from Illinois, told Land Line earlier this year that the change in law eliminated an annual tax deduction of $20,000. The change didn’t affect owner-operators or leased drivers.

The Senate version of the bill has 40 co-sponsors.

Despite the support for it, the measure is unlikely to reach the finish line before the end of the current legislative session.

However, the climate may be conducive to the passage of the return of the per diem deduction for company drivers.

Republicans are expected to make tax reform a priority in the next legislative session.

Bryce Mongeon, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association’s director of legislative affairs, told Land Line Now earlier this week that the Association is advocating for the return of the per diem in 2025.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated several miscellaneous deductions but increased the amount of a worker’s standard deduction. However, Mongeon said the math did not work out to the benefit of company truck drivers.

“After that was enacted, we heard from a number of employee drivers who said, ‘When we are out on the road 200, 250 or even 300 nights out of the year, that per diem added up to a lot,’” Mongeon said. “So even though the tax cut was intended to make sure everyone took home more money, in some of these cases, we saw our members and other drivers lose out on tax reform.”

OOIDA, which advocates for the rights of all truck drivers, supports efforts to reinstate the deduction for company drivers.

“The elimination of the per diem for company drivers has unfortunately increased the tax exposure for many hard-working Americans who make their living behind the wheel of a truck,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer wrote in 2019. LL