According to an ex-trucker turned IRS Revenue Agent the IRS ONLY accepts drivers D.O.T. log books for proof of overnights, as it is an official government document. He also mentioned that many of the carriers out there are now refusing to provide copies of the E-Logs to their drivers, making it impossible for drivers to provide the IRS with copies should they get audited. He was interested in learning if the app is “foolproof” and trusted as proof of Per Diem expenses.

Carriers refusing to provide copies of E-logs contributed to the design of Per Diem Plus.

Treasury Regulation 1.274-5A(c)(2) govern the rules for substantiation of travel. A  D.O.T. log book meets the requirements of the regulation not because it is a government document, but because it is contemporaneous record that is created “at or near the time the expense or travel occurred” [1.274-5A(c)(2)(ii)(a)] and establishes the “time, date and place” of the travel [1.274-5A(b)(1)].

The IRS has historically relied on log books as a practical matter because no other reliable method existed to substantiate overnight travel for truck drivers. Whereas as the IRS asserts drivers take liberties with their log books, Per Diem Plus provides irrefutable evidence of travel – GPS coordinates cannot be gamed in relation to where a driver was on a particular day.

A far as making it foolproof we have designed the software to be tamper proof and fulfill the all the requirements of Tres. Reg. 1.62-2, 1.274-5A, and IRS Revenue Procedure 2011-47 Sec 2.04, 2.08, 4.04, 7.01(2), et al (superseded most recently by 2015-63).