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(Michael James - Transport Topics) Truck drivers hope a higher meal tax deduction will come sooner. Michael Cameron of D.T. Grantham Inc. waits in a truck stop.

Truck drivers and others could benefit from greater tax deductions for the cost of meals during business travel as soon as next year under legislation proposed by Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond (R-Mo.), ranking minority member of the Senate Small Business Committee.

Bond’s Small Business Works Act would boost the meal deduction to 80% in 2002 from the current 60% level. The deduction is scheduled to go to 80% in 2008.

Support to increase the deduction has come from a variety of groups. American Trucking Associations favors it, as do most of the 600,000 members of the National Federation of Independent Business.

For the full story, see the July 9 print edition of Transport Topics. .

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