Lawyers extend deadline for meal allowance class action

SUMMERLAND, B.C. (Sept. 20, 2002) — A Summerland, B.C., law firm has extended a deadline for truck drivers to join a potential class-action suit to challenge Canada Customs and Revenue Agency’s $33-a-day simplified meal expense claim for transport workers.

Johnston, Johnson & Co. alleges that truck drivers should be entitled to the same allowance as federal government workers: $47.90 a day minus 50 per cent, the standard deduction for travel-related business meals. Federal workers are allowed an additional $13 a day for incidental expenses, boosting their total daily allowance to $60.90.

The firm says nearly 1,000 people have applied to join the suit and paid $100 to cover legal costs. Attorney Tom Johnston says applications will be accepted through the end of October.

“Initially, we had a Sept. 1 deadline because we want to go to court,” Johnston explains. “But interest in the case has been overwhelming. We have 11 people who are representative plaintiffs, one from each province plus the Yukon. After consulting with them, we decided to open it up again. When you’re making an argument that this situation is unfair, you want to include as many people as possible. There are 250,000 truck drivers out there, and we should give people every opportunity to benefit.”

Interest in the issue arose two years ago after a Winnipeg trucker, Don Wilkinson, claimed a daily meal rate of $40 instead of the customary $33 on his 1997 TL2 tax form. Forty dollars was a figure he couldn’t back up with receipts but one Wilkinson thought was fair, considering that more than two-thirds of his travel was in the United States and his expenses were in U.S. dollars.

CCRA auditors disagreed and disallowed his claim. Wilkinson appealed and won. Since then, nearly 200 others have won similar court challenges, Johnston says.

The $33 figure dates to a March 8, 1991, tax circular which states that $11 a meal for transport workers is reasonable for 1990 and subsequent tax years. The figure has not been revised since, nor has it been put into regulation in the federal Income Tax Act. It appears only in the CCRA’s Employment and Expense Guide, which is distributed with income tax forms each year. Most truck drivers use the simplified method for meal expense claims, which requires them to keep a travel record but not receipts for each meal.

“The argument that raising the limit would give truck drivers special treatment over other Canadians is hogwash when the government’s own people get so much more a day,” Johnston argues. “Truck drivers should be allowed the same amount.”

For more information about the case, contact Tom Johnston at 250/494-0442 or www.summerlandlawoffice.com.