Eastern Railroad Discussion > Tax deductions for railroaders

Wondering where I could find a list of tax deductions for railroaders?

ross072566 Wrote:
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> Wondering where I could find a list of tax
> deductions for railroaders?

Sit in a bar where railroaders congregate - there will be several experts.

for starters, keep all receipts! that'll help you and your tax preparer in figuring your deductions properly, and keep Uncle Sam's thugs off of your back.
-Cell Phone? got one so the Crew office can find you? that's deductable. call the DS when you're deadheading to a train? that's a great use of a private possession for company service.

If your on a road pool, and stay in the hotel, meals are also deductable, to a certain amount, based on locale.

if you work for CSX(or any other greedy CEO), who is too cheap to give out boots, your new red wings are deductable.
in short, anything that you use for the railroad, gloves, that new stearns rain jacket, as long as you have a reciept and a good railroad related reason for buying it--you're in

DRLOCO--whoopee! I found a loophole!

ross072566 Wrote:
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> Wondering where I could find a list of tax
> deductions for railroaders?


Union Dues, unreimbursed personal expenses, unreimbursed vehicle mileage, Cell Phone/ pager costs if the device is used mostly for caling you to work. Boots Gloves and other attire needed for work that the company did not pay for. You can depreciate your computer if you use it at least 51% to track your job or do other work related things. You can also depreciate the car you go to work in if you have another car for personal use. (But if you do you can't claim mileage) Also days away from home up to a little over 200 days, but now that has to be expressed as a dollar cost, and you can lump it in with unreimbursed expenses. I figured mine at 20 dollars per day, actually less than reality for me, and then subtracted meal claims of either 6 or 12 dollars depending on what I got on particular day. All taken together I find that what I suspect is true, it costs me more than I make to work for railroad! Yuck.

ok checked the publication 17. We are entitlied to $40.00 per day on our taxes, if you itemize. this is not subject to the normal 50% expense deduction is is 65% deductible. HAVE YOUR TAX PREPARER TAKE NOTE OF THIS. A day is broken down into 6 hour periods starting at 0001. If you are on duty at your home terminal at 0559, you are gone the full day. If you put off back at your home terminal at 0001, you are gone a quarter of that day. so what I do, and its never been contested is count the days, multiply by $40.00, subtract what the rr gives in meal allowance, and submit that dollar amount on the deduction schedule, at 65%. That is complex, but it is the government. There is a couple of pages in the pub 17 for us and away from home expenses.

DRLOCO Wrote:
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> for starters, keep all receipts! that'll help you
> and your tax preparer in figuring your deductions
> properly, and keep Uncle Sam's thugs off of your
> back.
> -Cell Phone? got one so the Crew office can find
> you? that's deductable. call the DS when you're
> deadheading to a train? that's a great use of a
> private possession for company service.
>
> If your on a road pool, and stay in the hotel,
> meals are also deductable, to a certain amount,
> based on locale.
>
> if you work for CSX(or any other greedy CEO), who
> is too cheap to give out boots, your new red wings
> are deductable.
> in short, anything that you use for the railroad,
> gloves, that new stearns rain jacket, as long as
> you have a reciept and a good railroad related
> reason for buying it--you're in
>
> DRLOCO--whoopee! I found a loophole!

Union dues, pager, gas mileage, but only if you work out of two or more different locations during the year.

Any kind of work clothes can be claimed, wristwatches, etc. Stay away from H&R Block, they have no clue how or what to claim for railroaders, that is from personal experience years ago when i was a new hire. Ask around in the terminal you work, specifically the old heads! The guy i have doing mine has his own business and one of the things he specializes in is tax preperation. he does many other railroaders taxes too.

A couple of old heads say they've claimed under $1,500 a year in taxi bills, since we're away from home with no transportation. They say you don't need any receipts so long as it's under $1,500. I'll run it by my retired RR tax man & try it this year too.

NS1

There are a lot of good answers here. I second staying away from H&R Block. It's worth hiring a professional to do your taxes even if it costs you $125.00 and that's tax deductable too. I'm a controller for a small corporation (relatively) and I don't have to tell you how many times our employees have got wrong information from the Block Heads. I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone out there but my experience is such.

Something to add: Most of you understand this but if you get reimbursed for something (they do that?) it's NOT deductable. And for most of you folks your deductions are deductable in the year they are paid. If you pay something in 2004, you can't deduct it in 2003 that includes your filing fee. Also, a tax deduction is not a dollar for dollar writeoff. Basically, take your tax rate times the expenditure and that's the part of the dollar you're not giving to Uncle Sam. So, for example, if your tax rate is 30%, for every dollar you spend on your boots, 70% comes out of your pocket. And as always, keep receipts. You never know when you'll get audited. Auditors can be ruthless. Not only will they make you pay back receiptless deductions but also charge interest, penalties and fines. There are, of course, some deductions that don't require receipts up to a mimimal amount. If you hire a professional, he can do the sparring for you.

Remember, the meal allowance is only for ROAD trips where you take rest - at least four hours in the hotel. It is not for yard service or any short turns where you begin and end at the same place without a layover where you take rest. So, even if you turn back on a second timeslip, if you don't take rest, you can't claim it. And you must deduct the company allowance from it. You can find that on your last pay stub of 2003. Don't believe everything you hear.

Out of service insurance premiums, too. (A gray area maybe, but hey...........)

Stay away from H&R Block and those tax-prep mills. I was once offered a preparers job there during tax season time) and I couldn't even balance my own checkbook. Tax experts, my butt.

Keep in mind contributions to a PAC aren't deductible.

The cost of call waiting on your home phone. Mine's $5.00 a month. It's small, but it counts.

Ron

Are cell phones deductable as well as the monthly bill or portions of it?

Rail1 Wrote:
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> Are cell phones deductable as well as the monthly
> bill or portions of it?

My guess is that the phone itself is not deductible (or depreciable). I tried mine, and the IRS rejected that particular item for depreciation as not being expensive enough. Did not affect my refund though, so it was merely a matter of delisting it.

Thanks so much for all the replies! Thanks again.

Rail1 Wrote:
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> Are cell phones deductable as well as the monthly
> bill or portions of it?

Worked for me for the past 3-yrs.

Cool. being on the Engineers Extra Board is the only reason I have a cell phone anyway.

Do those of you that deduct monthly cell phone costs deduct 100% of your bill? How about if I used it about 60/40 business /pleasure can I still deduct any of it?

I was checking out Publication 17 (2003 Tax Guide) and on page 189 it shows them increasing the standard meal allowance for transportation workers to $40 a day incurred for travel from Jan 1, 2003 to Oct 31, 2003. For November the rate is $41 and December $46! Check it out. Can also be downloaded on irs.gov site.

Only a portion of your cellphone can be claimed. It's gotten to be more common like in the days when I used to write off my entire phone bill with the argument that the railroad required me to have a phone. Got away with it for several years but the government to make it obvious to me that everyone has a phone and it wasn't a necessity for the railroad but something everyone has. Cellphone are going the same way, if they're not already there.

As for job insurance, I've been told by my taxman that the premiums aren't deductible, no more than your car or home insurance. And, it's not necessary to have it, although many might argue otherwise.