using personal trucks for work questions
nctacoma
| Posted in General Discussion on
So
I have always wondered what other companies do for this issue.
Every one of the construction companies/contractors I have worked for required us to have our own trucks.
I don’t mind stoppping and getting materials every once in a while if we need something right away or if the lumber order is delayed, but sometimes it gets excessive, runnng out a few times a day for this and that.
It sucks to have to drive extra and use up my fuel and put the wear and tear on my vehicle with no reimbursement.
Is this standard practice for employees to have to do so or do some companies reimburse for mileage or some other form of compensation?
This obviously doesn’t apply if you are allotted a comany vehicle
Replies
That seems crazy to me. Obviously your vehicle is expected to get you to a jobsite, but running errands for the company? Nope.
On the next job, show up with a subcompact car. Or better yet, a motor bike or bicycle. :-0
I *think* this is Federal law
but you'd have to ask someone more knowledgeable than me to really know.
I drive a personally owned truck for work, and I work as an employee for my own corporation. I keep a log of work miles driven, and I submit that log for reimbursement at the rate determined by the IRS http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=216048,00.html
Work miles do not include commuting to and from the job from home. Work miles are from job to job, job to shop, job to lumberyard, etc.
It is common practice for contractors to "expect" you to drive for the job at your own expense. I wouldn't do it, I'd make up a log sheet, fill it out, and hand it in. The only employee who does any amount of driving for me has basically refused to do the log, mostly because he doesn't care enough, but I'm not cutting a check for mileage without the correct log, otherwise it could be considered compensation instead of reimbursement, and would then be taxable income.
You might check w/ your insurance agent as to whether you are covered when running "errands" for your employer, and mention to your employer (or primary contractor) that they should talk to their ins agent as to risks of such usage.
At the very least you should log the expenses and use them for a tax write-off. If you're working on a 1099 you can write the costs off directly, but if you're a regular employee its subject to, I'm thinking, a 3% threshold before you can write off expenses.
But you really ought to submit an expense claim for this, if it's more than an occasional thing.
work vehicle
not knowing what your employment status is with your boss...
When I was working as a crew member I never hauled anything to the site except for my own personal tools. In fact, was not permitted to. Sometimes offered but always got told that it was better if I didn't.
I also worked as a crew foreman and there I got myself to the site on my own dime, but any hauling of materials, trailers, equipment, or other crew members got tracked mileage and got paid out by the contractor I was working for. Nice guy but not overly generous, he was under the impression that he was required to pay mileage for work related travel, so he did. Generally that was transit from one site to the next, so hauling tool trailer, skid-steer trailer, a truck full of materials and a bunch of sweet smelling framers, then we'd commute directly to that site for several weeks after that.
Now, as an independent contractor, I have 2 subcontractors whose crews travel in their own vehicles. My understanding is that they get paid mileage.
Occasionally I do subcontract installations and that shop pays subs mileage from their parking lot to the job and back, with extra rate for pulling their trailers.
j
The companies I've worked with have required the field guys (I worked in the office) to have their own truck and they all got a monthly flat rate check. I believe it was around $200/month. Same amount whether they drove a lot one month or whether they where on vacation for half of the next month.
A question for you is who supplies your cell phone? These guys where provided a company Blackberry and the company paid for every minute and Lord knows there was plenty of personal use going on on that thing.
Doug
Frist, its not illegal to require you to use your vehicle without reimbursement.
If they don't reimburse you you can as said track them on your own and deduct them on your tax return...depending.
As was mentioned if your "employer" gives you a 1099 then essentially he is treating you as a contractor (rightly or wrongly). If that is the case, your mileage is an expense that gets deducted directly from your income on Schedule C. You can either take the standard mileage rate or track actual gas tickets, repairs, maintenance, and depreciation. I recommend just doing the standard mileage rate which will greatly reduce your hassle.
If you get a W2 and are treated as an employee, they then become unreimbursed work expenses. They would go on Schedule A itemized deductions. Two problems here, #1 they are only deductible to the extent they exceed 2% of your income and #2 when you add them to the rest of your itemized deductions they have to all exceed your standard deduction. Your best bet is to start tracking them AND get yourself familiar with all the expenses that are subject to the 2% minimum. For example, you can deduct safety shoes/boots IF you are required to wear them and they aren't reimbursed. If you buy special work tough jeans deductible. Regular jeans, not deductible because you can wear them anywhere. Carharts, likely deductible. Coat, not. Hard hat deductible. Baseball cap not deductible. Wide brimmed straw hat to protect from sun, probably deductible. Sunglasses not deductible. Safety sunglasses/gkasses deductible.
The thing about mileage to remember is that every mile is deductible even of you do two things. If they send you to home depot for nails at lunch time, you record ALL the mileage to and from the jobsite, not just the home depot part. If you are going on a weekend trip to a bigger city and they say hey pick up such and such while you are there, deduct the whole thing. Doesn't matter that you did 99% personal use over the weekend.
Your best bet is to get a mileage log in your vehicle and start tracking it all. Travel miles to do charity work, like going to volunteer at church picnics etc is all deductible on schedule A in a different part. track it all and it all adds to your total decutions to get you over the standard deduction.
Yeah, we get a substantial deduction every year for charity miles, even though the rate for charity miles sucks. (I believe the rate for business miles is better.) Charity deductions aren't subject to the 2% cut, so if you get close to breaking the standard deduction they're worth recording.
The last time I was in that situation the company paid all expenses, gas, matenence, wear and tear; anything pertainiing to the use of the truck, it was a good deal.
for the folks who got reimbursed for the mileage or vehicle expense's,
how big were the companies that you were working for? How many guys in the field?
Truck Expense
Over the years that varied from 10 to 100, some of the smaller outfits were more prone to do it then the big ones. The problem now is that everything is so slow nobody wants to cover anything they don't have to.