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Haul Math

Taxes and compliance

Truck Driver Per Diem Calculator

Your per diem deduction for meals on the road, using the IRS transportation industry rate ($80 a day in the lower 48 right now).

How you count days
How do you want to count days?
Days away from home

Days you were on the road from midnight to midnight.

Each trip has two: the day you left and the day you got home. These count at 75%.

Any date in the stretch. It picks the IRS rate period (Oct 1 – Sep 30).

Where did you travel?

Interstate truck drivers under DOT rules deduct 80% of per diem. Uncheck for the general 50% limit.

Your result

Enter your days away and tap "Calculate per diem". Example numbers are already filled in.

How this calculator works

Per diem = (full days × daily rate) + (partial days × daily rate × 3/4). Deductible amount = per diem × 80%.

Instead of saving every meal receipt, a self-employed driver in the transportation industry can deduct a flat IRS meal and incidental expense (M&IE) rate for each day away from home overnight. There's one rate for travel in the continental US (CONUS) and one for travel outside it (OCONUS), and the IRS sets both each year for the period from October 1 to September 30.

Recent IRS transportation industry rates, per day
PeriodCONUSOCONUS
Oct 1, 2026 – Sep 30, 2027$80$86
Oct 1, 2025 – Sep 30, 2026$80$86
Oct 1, 2024 – Sep 30, 2025$80$86
Oct 1, 2023 – Sep 30, 2024$69$74

Partial days. The day you leave and the day you get home count at 3/4 of the rate. A trip from Monday to Friday is 3 full days plus 2 partial days, which is 4.5 days of per diem.

The 80% limit. Meals are normally 50% deductible. If you're subject to DOT hours of service rules, as interstate truck drivers are, you deduct 80%.

Which rate applies. Each day uses the rate for its own date, so a trip that runs across October 1 is split between two periods. The newest rate on file is for Oct 1, 2026 – Sep 30, 2027. For travel after that, the calculator shows the days as pending instead of guessing. See every rate by year on the per diem rates page.

Keep a log of each trip: the dates you left and got back, where you went, and the business reason. The flat rate replaces meal receipts, not the travel record.