Freight brokers have several industry-specific deductions that don’t apply to most other businesses. Your surety bond premium is one of the biggest. The FMCSA requires a $75,000 BMC-84 bond or BMC-85 trust fund to maintain your broker authority, and the annual premium you pay for that bond is fully deductible. So are your FMCSA registration fees and any costs associated with obtaining or renewing your operating authority.

Load board subscriptions like DAT, Truckstop.com, and similar platforms are deductible as business expenses. The same goes for your TMS software, CRM tools, and any other technology you use to manage loads, track shipments, or communicate with carriers and shippers. These costs add up quickly and are easy to overlook at tax time if you’re not tracking them throughout the year.

Factoring fees deserve special attention. Many freight and logistics businesses use factoring companies to get paid faster on receivables. The discount or fee the factoring company charges is a deductible business expense. If you’re factoring a significant portion of your loads, this can represent a meaningful deduction.

Insurance premiums are another major category. Contingent cargo insurance, general liability, errors and omissions coverage, and any other policies you carry for the brokerage are all deductible. If you have employees, workers’ comp and health insurance premiums count too.

Beyond the industry-specific items, standard business deductions apply. Office rent or home office costs, phone and internet, marketing and advertising, professional development, and business meals at 50% are all on the table. If you drive for business purposes like meeting with shippers or attending conferences, track your mileage or actual vehicle expenses.

Professional fees for accounting, legal counsel, and small business bookkeeping are deductible. So are bank fees, merchant processing charges, and interest on business loans or lines of credit you use to fund operations while waiting on carrier payments.

One area freight brokers frequently miss is the carrier payments themselves. The amounts you pay carriers are your cost of revenue, and while they’re not categorized as “deductions” in the traditional sense, they absolutely reduce your taxable income. Making sure these are recorded accurately matters for both your tax return and for understanding your actual gross margin per load.

The biggest risk for freight brokers at tax time isn’t that deductions don’t exist. It’s that they aren’t tracked consistently. A $200 monthly load board subscription, a $150 TMS fee, and a $300 bond premium seem small individually but represent thousands in annual deductions. Multiply that across every software tool, insurance policy, and operational cost and the impact on your tax bill is significant. Track expenses as they happen and review them quarterly so nothing falls through the cracks.