As always with this kind of article. We advise you check with your accountant to see if the following apply to you and/or your business.

Owners Operators and Lease Purchases can deduct any income expense that the business owner spends to operate his/her business. The Internal Revenue Service does not give us a specific list of expenses that a business can deduct, but they do go as far as to state that “expenses must be ordinary and necessary for the business to function.” Below is a list of some of the tax-deductible expenses that most owner operators and lease purchasers have deducted in the past.

Food

For business owner across all field, it necessary to provide meals for clients, employees or yourself; if is important to take people to lunch to close a deal. As a truck driver you have to eat to continue to have the energy to drive the hundreds of miles to drop off a load. Meals are deductible at 50% of cost as long as you can prove that the meal is for your business. There are a couple of exceptions to the 50 percent rule. If the client reimburses you for the meal, you will record the reimbursement as income and the meal expense is deductible at 100 percent. Owner Operators who do not receive a company per diem to cover food may use the special deduction for employees involved in transportation. As a truck driver as of 2010, you can claim a standard meal allowance of $59 a day.

Travel and Maintenance Expense

The deduction for Track Trailer expenses comes in the form of a mileage rate or the total expenses you incur. The standard mileage deduction is determined by the IRS each year and fluctuates due to the unfix cost that business drivers pay for gasoline at the pump. You multiply your business miles you logged by the rate the IRS has determined for that year (49 cents per mile for 2009 and 50 cents per mile for 2010), to determine the total deduction you can claim.

To calculate the total expenses you add up the total cost of the items that where business expenses; such as insurance, gasoline, depreciation, loan interest, oil, tires, etc. Be sure to subtract any expenses that are allocated to personal use for this could come back to hunt you. The big thing is that you can only deduct one or the other. Make sure you do your due diligence and find out which expense is going to come to a higher deduction and take the one that is higher. Make sure you keep adequate records to prove your business use. According to the IRS, you must keep records that are in writing in order for it “to be considered adequate.”

Home Office and Communication Expense

The portion of your personal home you use for business is a deductible expense. To be honest this is the number way to get audited and not the simplest to calculate. Most people do not qualify so we suggest that you sick the normal things that you are using for business like expenses that incur using your cell phones, cell phone service, CB radios, satellite networks for computers, computer software and laptops may all be included as business-related expenses and are deductible at a percentage of their original cost.

Last here is a list of the most commonly missed deductions for an Owner Operators:

Advertising – Owner Operators need to get their names out there to get freight most time they are able to rely on word of month, but some times that is not enough so advertising is great way to pick up some extra miles when things get hard.
Depreciation – According to the federal tax code’s Section 179 Deductions for Tangible Property, a truck owner does not have to depreciate his truck over the long term, but may instead be able to make a large one-time deduction. The maximum Section 179 expense deduction for qualified real property is $250,000. When times are tough sometime an extra deduct can go a long way. Do not forget that if you use this deduction you cannot use it again.
Tools – There is nothing like having to go back to Harbor Freight for the second time after you realized you are going to need that extra tool to get the job done. You can write off the trip to the store and back, but a lot of times the tools you have to buy are more expensive.
Uniforms – If you company that you contact work with requires that you have a certain dress code and does not pay for it that is a business expense. Keep you receipts and write this one off at the end of the year.

With the freedom to control your miles and home time as an owner of your own truck and business. You must as make sure that you stay organized as the year goes on so that you can make all of the money that you are due at the end of the year.