Personal Finance and Investing

They allowed Transportation workers and those affected by hours of service regulations - Railroad Engineers, Airline Pilots, Truck Drivers, to take a daily Per Diem deduction. In years past I could deduct upwards of $50 for each day/night spent away from home and 3/4 of that on the days I left and the days I returned. The amount had steadily risen over the years and last year it was over sixty bucks a day.

That's gone for tax year 2018.

It amounted to over $12,000 when I had a lot of cross country trips: one year over $17,000. The IRS only gave a percentage of that - 60% I believe, toward a reduction of my AGI, but still, it went a long way to reducing my tax liability.

This year I had some oddities. I lost nearly a months pay due to hospital stays (COPD Flareups) and had to take premature distributions from my IRA to keep the cash flow up, so I'll have the penalty and tax hit for that.

But we'll see how it will work out. It looks like I'll still get a refund, but not as large as in years past.

Sure am tired of all the winning, that's for sure!