Trucking has more legal deductions than almost any other industry, and trucking companies routinely miss thousands of dollars in them every year. The 2026 tax year follows the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed July 4, 2025, which permanently restored 100% bonus depreciation, raised the Section 179 limit, and made several TCJA provisions permanent. The per-diem rate, IFTA framework, and HVUT structure are unchanged. What none of it changes: the burden on owner-operators and fleets to claim every deduction they’re entitled to, because a generalist accountant won’t do it for them.
This is the deduction list that should be on the wall of every dispatcher’s office and in the inbox of every owner-operator running between Washington and Oregon. It’s organized by category and written for both single-truck operators filing Schedule C and fleets filing 1120-S or 1065. The state-specific tax mechanics (Oregon Weight-Mile Tax, Washington Public Utility Tax, IFTA reconciliation) are covered separately on our trucking accounting page — this article focuses purely on the deductions that reduce your federal taxable income.
Per Diem for DOT-Regulated Drivers
The IRS transportation-industry per diem is the single largest deduction most owner-operators are entitled to and the one most generalist accountants underuse. For 2026, the rate is $80 per day for travel within the continental U.S. and $86 per day outside CONUS. These rates took effect October 1, 2024 and remain in place through September 30, 2026 (IRS Notice 2025-54).
Two important specifics. First, the per diem covers meals and incidental expenses only — lodging is deducted separately based on actual cost. Second, drivers subject to Department of Transportation hours-of-service regulations are entitled to deduct 80% of the per-diem amount, well above the 50% general meal-deduction cap (see IRS Publication 463). For an owner-operator running 250 over-the-road days a year, that’s a $20,000 per-diem base producing a $16,000 federal deduction — every year, without receipts, with only a log of days away from home.
Per diem is available to self-employed drivers (Schedule C, sole proprietors, single-member LLCs, S-corp owners with W-2 wages) but the mechanics differ slightly for each. W-2 employee drivers cannot deduct per diem on their personal returns — the TCJA suspended that deduction for tax years 2018–2025, and OBBBA made the suspension permanent. The fleet that employs the driver, however, can pay per diem as a non-taxable reimbursement under an accountable plan and deduct it on the company return.
Equipment Depreciation and Section 179
For tax years beginning in 2026, the Section 179 expensing limit is $2,560,000, with phase-out beginning at $4,090,000 of qualifying property and fully phased out at $6,650,000. For trucking companies, the practical implication is that virtually any single-truck or small-fleet equipment purchase can be expensed in full in the year of purchase.
Heavy trucks over 14,000 lbs GVWR are not subject to the heavy-SUV cap (the $31,300 limit that applies to luxury SUVs in the 6,001–14,000 lb range). Pickup trucks with a 6-foot or longer cargo bed are similarly exempt. The cab-and-chassis you’re putting in service this year qualifies for full first-year expensing if it’s used more than 50% for business and your taxable income supports the deduction (Section 179 is limited to business income; bonus depreciation is not).
For a fleet placing a $185,000 tractor in service in 2026, the deduction sequence typically runs: take Section 179 first up to the business income limit, then bonus depreciation on any remaining basis, then MACRS on whatever’s left. Bonus depreciation is back at 100% for qualifying property acquired and placed in service on or after January 19, 2025 — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the 100% rate permanent and eliminated the prior phase-out schedule. For property acquired under a binding contract before January 20, 2025, the older phase-out (40% in 2025, 20% in 2026) still applies. Section 179 is still capped by business income; bonus depreciation isn’t, which is why the sequencing matters in any year you have a large equipment buy and modest income.
Beyond tractors and trailers, Section 179 applies to refrigeration units, lift gates, dollies, auxiliary power units, in-cab electronics, shop equipment, computers, and office furniture. See IRS Publication 946 for the full depreciation framework.
Fuel and Operating Costs
Fuel is the largest operating expense for most carriers and the most straightforward deduction — track the gallons, retain the receipts (or, more commonly, the fuel card statements), and deduct the full amount. Where it gets nuanced is the fuel tax credit for off-highway use: federal excise tax paid on diesel that goes to refrigeration units (reefers), power take-off (PTO) operations, yard tractors, and other non-highway use is recoverable through Form 4136 at year-end or quarterly Form 720. Most carriers don’t separate reefer fuel from tractor fuel and forfeit this credit annually. For a fleet running 20 reefer trailers, the recovery can run into five figures per year.
Other operating-cost deductions running through Schedule C or the entity return:
- Maintenance and repairs (oil changes, tire replacement, brake jobs, engine work, DOT inspections)
- Cleaning supplies and truck wash
- Tolls (track separately — different state systems offer different recoveries)
- Parking, including truck-stop parking fees
- Lodging when actual cost exceeds per-diem (per diem covers M&IE only)
- Cargo securement: straps, chains, tarps, dunnage
- Driver consumables: paper logs, log books, pre-trip inspection forms
Insurance
Commercial trucking carries some of the highest insurance premiums in any small business category — and all of it is deductible. The categories that trucking companies routinely buy and deduct:
- Commercial auto / primary liability (the FMCSA minimum-required policy)
- Cargo insurance
- General liability
- Bobtail / non-trucking liability (for drivers not under dispatch)
- Workers’ compensation (in WA, through L&I; in OR, through SAIF or private carriers)
- Physical damage on the truck and trailer
- Occupational accident insurance (for 1099 owner-operators)
Health insurance has its own deduction path. Self-employed drivers — including S-corp owners who pay themselves wages — can deduct premiums for themselves, spouse, and dependents on Schedule 1 as a self-employed health insurance deduction, reducing AGI rather than business income. This deduction is limited to the business’s net profit and is taken above the line.
License, Permit, and Registration Fees
Every required fee for the privilege of operating in trucking is deductible. The list for an interstate carrier headquartered in Vancouver, WA running across the Pacific Northwest:
- HVUT (Form 2290). $100 plus $22 per 1,000 lbs above 55,000 lbs, capped at $550 per vehicle. See Form 2290 Instructions.
- IFTA decal fees (annual, per truck)
- IRP apportioned registration fees
- Oregon Weight-Mile Tax enrollment bond and admin fees
- Washington UBI / business license
- USDOT and MC authority renewal
- UCR (Unified Carrier Registration) annual fee
- CDL renewal and DOT medical exam costs
- Drug and alcohol consortium / random testing fees
Communication and Technology
Most modern trucking operations are running a small stack of subscriptions that often go undeducted because they live on personal credit cards. Recoverable:
- Cell phone (business-use portion)
- ELD subscription (electronic logging device service)
- GPS and route planning subscriptions (CoPilot, PC*MILER, Trucker Path Pro)
- Transportation Management System (TMS) software
- Accounting and bookkeeping software (QuickBooks, Trucking Bookkeeping Services, Rigbooks)
- Load board subscriptions (DAT, Truckstop.com)
- Satellite radio (if used for safety / weather information during long hauls — defensible)
- Tablets, laptops, in-cab printers used for business documentation
Professional Services and Industry Dues
Money spent on professional advice and trade-association membership is deductible:
- CPA and accounting services (this is the line where our fees live — tax preparation and bookkeeping for trucking clients)
- Legal fees related to the business (operating agreements, contract review, employment defense)
- Membership in trade associations (OTA, WTA, ATA, OOIDA)
- Continuing education and CDL training
- Trade publications (Overdrive, Land Line, Commercial Carrier Journal)
Retirement Contributions
Retirement deductions are the largest single tax-planning lever for high-income owner-operators and small fleet owners, and they’re the most underused. Two structures dominate:
SEP-IRA. Contributions are deductible up to 25% of net self-employment income (after the SE-tax deduction), with a 2026 maximum of $72,000 (IRS SEP contribution limits). Simple to administer, no annual filing requirement, can be opened and funded up to the extended return deadline.
Solo 401(k). Allows both an employee elective deferral ($24,500 for 2026, plus an $8,000 catch-up for age 50+) and an employer profit-sharing contribution (up to 25% of net SE income), with the combined cap at $72,000 in 2026 ($80,500 with catch-up). For a single-truck owner-operator with no employees, the Solo 401(k) almost always allows a larger contribution than a SEP because the employee deferral piece doesn’t depend on business income. The IRS publishes annual cost-of-living adjustments at irs.gov/retirement-plans.
For fleets with employees, a 401(k) or SIMPLE IRA plan deducts both the employer match and the administrative cost. This is the kind of decision that belongs in a virtual CFO conversation rather than year-end tax prep, because the plan choice affects payroll structure, fiduciary obligations, and the timing of cash flow.
Self-Employment Tax Adjustments
Single-truck owner-operators filing Schedule C pay 15.3% self-employment tax on net earnings up to the Social Security wage base — $184,500 for 2026 (the Medicare portion of 2.9% continues without a cap; see SSA contribution and benefit base). The deductible half of SE tax — the employer-equivalent portion — is taken on Schedule 1 as an adjustment to income, automatically by any competent tax software but worth verifying.
The S-corp election conversation belongs here. Once an owner-operator clears roughly $80,000–$120,000 of net SE income, the math on an S-corp election usually starts to favor it. Wages are still subject to payroll taxes, but distributions are not. The breakeven depends on the reasonable-compensation requirement and the administrative cost of running payroll — model both scenarios annually.
Record-Keeping Standards: What You Need to Defend Each Deduction
The IRS doesn’t disallow trucking deductions because the deductions are illegitimate. It disallows them because the records can’t support the number. The documentation thresholds that matter for each major category:
- Per diem. A trip log showing dates away from your tax home, locations, and DOT hours-of-service compliance. The log doesn’t need receipts for meals; the per-diem election replaces actual-expense substantiation. ELD records are acceptable supporting evidence but not sufficient alone — they document driving hours, not days away from home for tax purposes.
- Vehicle depreciation. Purchase invoice, in-service date, VIN, GVWR documentation, and a business-use log showing the 50%+ business-use threshold. Mixed-use vehicles need a contemporaneous mileage log.
- Fuel. Fuel-card statements or receipts with date, gallons, price, and location. State-by-state fuel reconciliation is required for IFTA anyway — the same data supports the federal deduction and the off-highway fuel credit.
- Insurance. Annual policy declarations or quarterly statements. Note: pre-paid premiums are deductible only in the year they cover, not when paid.
- Cell phone and technology subscriptions. Monthly statements showing business-use percentage if mixed with personal use. A reasonable allocation (e.g., 80% business) is defensible if you can articulate the basis.
- Home office. Square-footage measurement, photographs of the dedicated space, and documentation of the exclusive-use standard. Form 8829 walks through the calculation.
The IRS standard assessment period is three years from the date the return was filed; six years if unreported income exceeds 25% of gross; indefinite if no return was filed. Oregon’s Weight-Mile Tax program requires carriers to maintain records for at least three years from the date the tax return was filed (OAR 740-055-0120), and if no WMT report was filed for a reporting period, there is no statute of limitations on assessment. Washington Department of Revenue’s general assessment statute is four years from the close of the calendar year in which the tax was incurred (WAC 458-20-230), with exceptions for non-registered businesses, fraud, and uncollected trust-fund taxes. Keep everything for at least six years to be safe.
Often-Missed Deductions
The following are deductions trucking clients routinely come to us not having taken in prior years:
- Bad debt. Brokers who didn’t pay, customers who went bankrupt before the invoice cleared. For accrual-basis taxpayers, the unpaid receivable is deductible once it’s clearly uncollectible.
- Factoring fees. The discount taken by a factoring company on invoices is a business expense, deductible in full.
- Detention and demurrage waivers. Charges you actually pay but might forget existed.
- Driver gifts and lodging during recruiting. Reasonable expenses tied to retention or hiring are deductible.
- Charitable contributions for sponsorship. If the contribution is tied to advertising (truck signage, race-team sponsorship, community-event signage), it’s typically deductible as advertising rather than as charity — usually a better tax position.
- Education for the business. Industry conferences, freight-broker certification courses, equipment-specific training.
- Home office. If you do dispatch, billing, or load planning from a dedicated space in your home, the home-office deduction is available on Form 8829. Most owner-operators qualify and don’t take it.
What This Doesn’t Cover
This guide is a deduction map, not a state tax framework. The taxes you owe as a trucking carrier — Oregon Weight-Mile Tax, Washington Public Utility Tax, IFTA, HVUT, IRP — are covered in detail on our Trucking CPA Services page. The state-tax side and the federal-deduction side need to be planned together; deductions don’t help you if you’re paying multi-state tax on revenue that should be apportioned differently, and apportionment doesn’t help you if you’re missing the per-diem and Section 179 floor on every return.
Bottom Line
The deductions covered above are not aggressive tax positions. They are statutory entitlements available under the Internal Revenue Code — per diem under §274(n)(3), Section 179 under §179, the off-highway fuel credit under §6427, the self-employed health insurance deduction under §162(l), and the retirement plan deductions under §401 and §408. They go unclaimed when the preparer doesn’t apply the trucking-specific rules. The most common categories owner-operators come to us not having taken: per diem, the off-highway fuel credit, the home-office deduction, and any retirement contribution at all.
If you operate a trucking business in Washington or Oregon and your last return doesn’t show separate line items for transportation per-diem, off-highway fuel tax credit, and Section 179, schedule a trucking tax review. We’ll look at your three most recent returns and tell you what was missed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a W-2 truck driver deduct per diem on their personal tax return?
No. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 suspended miscellaneous itemized deductions — including unreimbursed employee business expenses like per diem — for tax years 2018 through 2025, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 made that suspension permanent. The fleet that employs the driver can still pay per diem under an accountable plan as a non-taxable reimbursement and deduct it on the company return, which is the structure most fleets use to preserve the tax benefit.
What’s the difference between Section 179 and bonus depreciation for a new truck?
Section 179 is taken first and is capped by the business’s taxable income for the year — you cannot use Section 179 to create or increase a net operating loss. Bonus depreciation is applied after Section 179 to any remaining basis and has no income limitation, so it can generate an NOL. After OBBBA, bonus depreciation is 100% (permanent) for qualifying property acquired and placed in service on or after January 19, 2025. For a profitable owner-operator buying a single tractor, Section 179 alone usually expenses the entire purchase. For a fleet making a large equipment buy in a moderate-income year, the combination of Section 179 plus 100% bonus depreciation lets you fully expense the buy and generate an NOL to carry forward.
How long should I keep my trucking tax records?
Six years is the safe answer. The IRS standard assessment period is three years from the date the return was filed, six years if unreported income exceeds 25% of gross, and indefinite for returns with fraud or unfiled returns. Oregon’s Weight-Mile Tax program requires record retention for at least three years from the date the WMT return was filed, with no statute of limitations if no return was filed. Washington Department of Revenue’s general assessment statute is four years from the close of the calendar year in which the tax was incurred. Six years covers all standard audit windows.
Can I deduct my truck if I use it for personal driving sometimes?
Partially. The vehicle must be used more than 50% for business to qualify for Section 179 or accelerated depreciation. If your business-use percentage is, say, 85%, you can deduct 85% of the depreciation, fuel, maintenance, insurance, and other vehicle expenses. The 50% threshold is a hard line — falling below it triggers depreciation recapture in the year of the drop.
Is the home office deduction worth taking as an owner-operator?
Usually yes, if you have a legitimate dedicated space. Owner-operators handle dispatching, invoicing, IFTA reporting, and recordkeeping from somewhere — if that’s a dedicated room or area in your home, Form 8829 allocates a portion of mortgage interest, property tax, utilities, and depreciation against your trucking income. For most owner-operators it’s a $1,500–$3,500 annual deduction that’s commonly missed.
Do I need a CPA who specializes in trucking, or is any tax preparer fine?
A general preparer can file the return. Whether they file it accurately depends on whether they know the transportation per-diem rules, the off-highway fuel credit, Section 179 mechanics for vehicles over 14,000 lbs GVWR, the Oregon Weight-Mile Tax / IFTA reconciliation, and worker-classification standards under WA and OR law. If your last return doesn’t have separate line items for those, the preparer isn’t applying trucking-specific knowledge. Schedule a trucking tax review and we’ll look at your three most recent returns.
