Railroad employee per diem

[NECPA in NEBRASKA]

I'm hoping that someone knows more about railroad employee compensation than I do. I've spent a lot of time trying to find an answer dealing with this, but I'm not sure that I'm doing this right. My stepson works on a railroad track crew. He is paid per diem and some travel on certain jobs that bid for. It says that it is non taxable on his pay stub and there is nothing on his W-2 showing it. He doesn't have to report expenses to the railroad. Other guys on his crew keep track of their miles and meals and deduct from their tax returns what is not covered by their per diems. They are not even out overnight. He commutes every day from his home and so do they. I haven't been using 2106 on his return. If he were gone overnight, I could understand taking meals. He doesn't have a house, so his deductions would have to be pretty high in order to itemize. Am I missing out on deductions for him? He has only worked there a few years and was in Iraq for more than a year so he probably didn't miss out on a lot of tax refund. If he worked for anyone else, I would think that he would have taxable income for anything not reported to his employer. Thanks for any ideas.

Bonnie

[kcjenkins]

Employees subject to the DOT hours of service limits include certain railroad employees, such as engineers, conductors, train crews, dispatchers, and control operations personnel. They are allowed to base their expense deductions on the DOT rules, rather than the 'overnight' rule. But since he does not itemize, it's moot for him. He won't have enough excess, at the best, to make itemizing work for him, unless he's close to the edge anyway. And those 2106 expenses are also subject to the 2% haircut.

[NECPA in NEBRASKA]

Thanks, KC. I was pretty sure that I was handling it right, at least until he gets a house. I have no idea as much as these guys are making, how any of them are making out ahead of the 2%.

[kcjenkins]

Ah, but perhaps their spouse makes a lot more? That is usually the answer.

[NECPA in NEBRASKA]

Thankfully, he didn't marry his crazy ex-fiance last year, so I don't have to worry about spousal income.