Truck Driver Per Diem: How to Calculate Your Deduction

Per diem is the flat daily amount the IRS lets you deduct for meals and incidental expenses when you're on the road overnight. You don't need a receipt for every truck stop meal. You need a record of the days you were away, and the math below.

Who can use the transportation rate

The IRS has a special meal and incidental expense (M&IE) rate for the transportation industry. You qualify if your work directly involves moving goods or people by truck (or bus, train, plane, barge, or ship), and it regularly takes you away from home on trips that stop in places with different federal meal rates. That describes most over-the-road owner-operators.

Self-employed drivers use the rate to figure their meal deduction. If you use it for any trip, you use it for all your trips that calendar year.

The rates

The IRS sets two rates in a notice each September, for travel from October 1 to the next September 30. One is for the continental US (CONUS, the lower 48). The other is for everywhere else (OCONUS), including Alaska and Hawaii.

• Oct 1, 2024 – Sep 30, 2025: $80 CONUS, $86 OCONUS (Notice 2024-68)
• Oct 1, 2025 – Sep 30, 2026: $80 CONUS, $86 OCONUS (Notice 2025-54)
• Oct 1, 2026 – Sep 30, 2027: $80 CONUS, $86 OCONUS (Notice 2026-60)

Before that, the CONUS rate was $69 from October 2021 through September 2024, and $66 from October 2019 through September 2021. See every period on the per diem rates by year page.

Because the rate period starts October 1, one tax year uses two periods. For 2024, days from January through September used $69 and days from October through December used $80. For 2026, it's $80 all year.

The formula

Per diem = (full days × rate) + (partial days × rate × 3/4)

Deduction = per diem × 80%

• Full day: a day you were away from home the whole day, midnight to midnight.
• Partial day: the day you leave and the day you get home. For the meal deduction, the IRS says to use 3/4 of the rate for these days.
• 80%: meals are normally only 50% deductible. If you're subject to DOT hours of service rules, as interstate truck drivers are, the limit is 80%.

Worked example: a year on the road in 2026

Say you ran 25 trips in 2026, all in the lower 48. Between them you were out 200 full days. Each trip has a leaving day and a coming-home day, so that's 50 partial days. The 2026 CONUS rate is $80 all year.

• Full days: 200 × $80 = $16,000
• Partial days: 50 × $80 × 3/4 = 50 × $60 = $3,000
• Total per diem: $16,000 + $3,000 = $19,000
• Deduction: $19,000 × 80% = $15,200

That $15,200 comes off your business profit, so it lowers both your income tax and your self-employment tax. Plug it into the quarterly tax estimator to see what it's worth to you.

Trips that cross October 1

Each day uses the rate for its own date. Take a trip from September 28 to October 3, 2024, when the rate went from $69 to $80:

• Sep 28 (left home): $69 × 3/4 = $51.75
• Sep 29 and 30: 2 × $69 = $138
• Oct 1 and 2: 2 × $80 = $160
• Oct 3 (got home): $80 × 3/4 = $60

That's $409.75 of per diem and a $327.80 deduction at 80%. The per diem calculator does this split for you when you enter trip dates.

What records to keep

The flat rate replaces meal receipts, but you still have to prove the trips. For each trip, keep the dates you left and got back, where you went, and the business reason. Your ELD logs, trip sheets, fuel receipts, and rate confirmations usually cover it. Keep them with your tax records.

Common mistakes

• Counting partial days as full days. On 50 partial days at $80, that overstates per diem by $1,000.
• Forgetting the 80% limit. The deduction is 80% of the per diem total, not all of it.
• Counting days you weren't away overnight. A local run where you sleep at home isn't a per diem day.
• Mixing methods. If you use the special transportation rate, use it for all your trips that year.

Company drivers paid per diem by a carrier are in a different situation from owner-operators. Ask your tax pro how it applies to your pay. Owner-operators who also want to check their overall numbers can use the profit and loss generator.