Per Diem meal rate for Self employed on business travel

[dgreenegretz]

Hey So I travelled a lot to other states this year on business travel and I was told being self employed I could take the per diem meal rate just not the lodging rate for that state the number of nights I stayed there. For example I was in California 41 days on business travel. What am I able to deduct for per diem meal rate?

[Opus 17]

When traveling on business, you can deduct 100% of your actual lodging expense, and 50% of your actual meal expense or 50% of the federal per diem.  The per diem meal rate varies by city and state, you can look it up here.

https://www.gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates

Turbotax might contain a wizard that will calculate you meals for you if you list all the trips separately, but I have not tested this part of the program.  If you just want to enter one meal amount, you can add up the rates yourself for each trip.  (I also think you should enter 100% of the meals and Turbotax will do the 50% calculation, but you will want to check that before you file.)

[MinhT1]

@dgreenegretz 

Please see Champ @Opus 17 's reply.

@Opus 17  Thank you.

[Edited 01/31/22 | 5:03AM PST]

[dgreenegretz]

Hey thanks! So I only can claim 50% of the federal employee per diem rate correct? Did this change at all during the year because I heard after October 2021, stuff was changed.

[dgreenegretz]

So I am a sole proprietor of my own business but not a federal employee so I can claim 80% of federal per diem rate or 50%? thanks!

[Opus 17]

@MinhT1 

The 80% rule is for over the road truckers.  Self-employed people who are not truckers use 50% of the M&IE rate which varies by city.  

[Opus 17]

@dgreenegretz 

50% only.  The 80% rule is only for over the road truckers.   See chapter 1 here.  
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p463.pdf

The federal lookup web site allows you to pick the year.  For travel from January-September, use the 2021 rate.  For travel after October 1,2021, use the federal 2022 fiscal year rate.  

[dgreenegretz]

So just to clarify the 50% is just the meal expense portion of the M&IE total, the incidental amount included in the rate are not subject to the 50% so for LA, California it would be $35.50 a day for the self-employed?

[Opus 17]

@dgreenegretz 

if I understand your question correctly, you need to go up a couple of paragraphs and read again. If you use the standard M&IE rate, you can’t take anything extra for incidentals, because they are included in the standard amount.  The $5 standard incidental rate is only allowed for a day where you pay nothing for meals.  If you don’t pay for any meals, you can take the $5 incidental rate and you don’t have to subtract 50%. If you pay for meals, you must use either 50% of your actual expenses (in which case you also keep track of your actual tips and other incidentals) or you use 50% of the standard M&IE and that’s all.

For 2021 federal fiscal year, the rate for Los Angeles is $66, so you would deduct $33 per day of travel.