The official federal per diem rates include separate amounts for lodging and M&IE (meals and incidental expenses). When traveling on business, your tax deduction for business expenses is your actual lodging expense (which you prove with receipts) plus either 50% of the M&IE rate or 50% of your actual meals expenses. (If you use the M&IE rate you don’t need meals receipts.) I believe TurboTax does the 50% calculation for you so you will enter the entire amount and let the program do the 50%.
