Operating Costs & Taxes • ELDT.LIVE
IRS Keeps the Special Trucking Per Diem at $80 for the New Fiscal Year
IRS Notice 2026-60 keeps the transportation-industry meal and incidental expense rate at $80 in the continental U.S. and $86 outside it for qualifying travel beginning October 1.
The transportation rate stays at $80 and $86
IRS Notice 2026-60 sets the special transportation-industry meals and incidental expenses rate at $80 per day for qualifying travel within the continental United States and $86 per day outside it. Those figures are unchanged from the prior annual notice. The new notice applies to eligible allowances paid for travel on or after October 1, 2026, and to eligible meal and incidental expenses paid or incurred on or after that date. It does not change a driver's October 1 trip into an automatic $80 payment or tax refund.
The separate high-low method is increasing
The same notice raises the high-low substantiation rates to $329 for travel to a designated high-cost locality and $230 for other CONUS localities, up from $319 and $225. Those combined lodging-and-meal rates are a different method available to payors generally; they are not replacements for the transportation-industry M&IE rate. Within the new high-low totals, the IRS treats $86 in a high-cost locality and $74 elsewhere as the meal component. Drivers and payroll teams should identify which method the carrier actually uses before comparing numbers.
Eligibility still depends on travel away from a tax home
IRS rules treat a worker as traveling away from home when work requires the person to be outside the general area of the tax home substantially longer than an ordinary workday and sleep or rest is needed to meet the job's demands. A route being long, crossing a state line or ending after dark does not by itself settle that test. The tax home is generally the main business or work area, not automatically the place where a driver keeps a personal residence. Local and home-daily work may therefore produce a different result from qualifying overnight travel.
Company drivers should not assume they can claim an unreimbursed deduction
IRS Topic 511 says most employees cannot deduct unreimbursed travel expenses under current federal rules, although limited exceptions exist. A carrier may instead operate a qualifying reimbursement or per diem arrangement, and its payroll treatment depends on the plan and substantiation requirements. Company drivers should read the written policy and pay statement, ask how eligible days are counted and obtain tax advice for their own facts. Calling part of wages 'per diem' does not by itself prove that the payment qualifies for favorable tax treatment.
Owner-operators need the business-travel rules, not just the headline rate
The IRS says self-employed taxpayers may deduct qualifying travel expenses on Schedule C, subject to the tax-home, business-purpose and substantiation rules. The special rate can simplify the amount used for eligible meals and incidentals, but it does not establish that every day on the road is deductible. An owner-operator should separate personal travel, commuting and nonqualifying local work, avoid claiming actual meal costs and a standard meal allowance for the same expense, and confirm the treatment with a qualified tax professional.
The 80% meal limit is a separate calculation
IRS Publication 463 states that interstate truck operators subject to Department of Transportation hours-of-service limits can generally use an 80% deduction percentage for qualifying business meals consumed during or incident to a covered duty period, instead of the ordinary 50% limit. That percentage applies to the otherwise allowable meal amount; it does not turn an $80 per diem rate into an $80 deduction or payment. A driver's employment status, tax home, reimbursement and records still determine how the rule applies.
Records remain necessary even when receipts are simplified
A standard meal allowance can replace proof of the actual meal amount, but it does not eliminate the need to establish the trip. Keep contemporaneous records of the date, destination, business purpose, time away from home and any employer reimbursement, together with dispatch, log, fuel, toll and lodging records that support the travel. Preserve the carrier's policy and pay statements as well. Notice 2026-60 also points to transition rules for the final three months of 2026, so a carrier should apply one permitted method consistently rather than switching day by day for the better result.
Use October 1 as a payroll and recordkeeping checkpoint
Before the new rates take effect, fleets can confirm the written reimbursement plan, payroll coding, eligible travel definition, partial-day method, OCONUS treatment and year-end transition choice. Drivers can verify their tax-home facts, learn how the carrier reports per diem and organize trip records before filing season. The useful takeaway is narrow but important: the transportation-specific M&IE number is staying at $80 CONUS and $86 OCONUS, while the unrelated high-low method rises. Neither set of numbers replaces the underlying IRS eligibility and documentation rules.
Educational summaries help you prepare, but official FMCSA and state licensing sources remain the authority for current requirements.
Official sources
IRS Notice 2026-60 — 2026-2027 Special Per Diem Rates ↗IRS Topic No. 511 — Business Travel Expenses ↗IRS Publication 463 — Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses ↗FreightWaves — Per diem: one approach is stable, other is higher ↗ELDT.live independently creates and reviews its content. We do not present practice questions as official examination questions and do not guarantee a licensing result.