Say I go to McDonalds and either buy lunch for myself, or for my crew. Is this a tax write off?
Are lunches a write off?
Gene $immons
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Say I go to McDonalds and either buy lunch for myself, or for my crew. Is this a tax write off?
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Ask an accountant.Gene $immons said:
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You can not write off yourself, especially on a daily basis unless you are out of town on business. However, if you take the crew to lunch and have a meeting, you can write it off as an expense. Need to keep receipt and put who and when on the receipt.
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What if you bought a bunch of deli meats and cheese's for the guys once a month? Would that be deductible. Business would be discussed of course.
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Yep..PlantSolutions said:
You cannot deduct your personal meals because whether you are working or not, you still have to eat. Same thing for your house. You can deduct partially if you use part of your home for business, but not the whole thing.
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Yes, it would be deductable. Just make sure you document who, where, when and purpose. If you have them too frequently all of a sudden, they (IRS) will start wondering and questioning, but every so often is usual in business.BladeRunner1967 said:
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Example 1:
You and 1 employee go out to lunch together. This is called "wining and dining" and constitutes an expense category called "meals and entertainment." You must document who you were with and what the business purpose of the meeting was. And, this deduction is only actually deducted at 50% of the total expense....they assume you have to eat anyways, so you can only deduct the $ you spent on employees.
Example 2:
You and the whole gang go out for lunch and conduct a safety meeting, or customer satisfaction meeting. IF you buy all of the lunches for everyone, now it is a "seminar" which can be deducted at 100%.
Example 3:
You buy yourself lunch at McD's......NO DEDUCTION
You and 1 employee go out to lunch together. This is called "wining and dining" and constitutes an expense category called "meals and entertainment." You must document who you were with and what the business purpose of the meeting was. And, this deduction is only actually deducted at 50% of the total expense....they assume you have to eat anyways, so you can only deduct the $ you spent on employees.
Example 2:
You and the whole gang go out for lunch and conduct a safety meeting, or customer satisfaction meeting. IF you buy all of the lunches for everyone, now it is a "seminar" which can be deducted at 100%.
Example 3:
You buy yourself lunch at McD's......NO DEDUCTION
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I save Bandwidth:clapping:LB1234 said:
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This forum is for learning about business, it is a valid question, why such a smart azz answer?
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Its a Legal question.jblawns123 said:
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If you are away from your primary place of residence and it would be impractical to travel to your home for the meal yes, you can take half. If you buy for your workers you can deduct the full cost if the meal included a meeting to discuss business or the meal was understood to be part of the compensation for working with you. Keep receipt and names in attendance. If you keep no record of it as far as IRS is concerned, legit or not it never happened and cant be written off.
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If you got the receipt from the store and the item is for the convenience of the business owner then it is an expense, not a deduction. An expense will come off the bottom line when you do your monthly profit/loss and will be totaled and reflected on the Schedule c at tax time. A tax deduction is subtracted to calculate your AGI on the front page of the 1040. Dont forget you have till April 17th to file this year. But quarterly estimates are still due on Apr 15th.StBalor said:
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