Two kinds of vehicle plans
ACCOUNTABLE PLAN
Employee hands employer expense report showing X business miles. Employer reimburses X for that amount up to the approved business mileage rate per mile for that year. Done. Employer gets the deduction. Employee is not taxed.
UNACCOUNTABLE PLAN
Employee receives X per month with no accounting to the employer. Employee is taxed on X for both FICA and Income Tax. The legitimate documented business miles is a deduction for the employee in 2017 and prior years (maybe, depended on a lot of things on his/her personal return as to whether they actually received a tax benefit).
BUT new tax law for 2018 does not allow a W2 employee to deduct anything for unreimbursed employee expenses. So, the employee is taxed on the per diem, period. Employer is deducting the per diem because it is a part of the W2. Employee has no deduction and actually pays tax on otherwise legitimate business deduction.
BEST METHOD
ACCOUNTABLE PLAN IS BEST. Employee is not taxed. Employer deducts the ACTUAL expenses with no payroll reporting.