I am work from home employee who for work goes outside their domicile county for day trips to temporary work locations. Ok to deduct the cost of my meals on day trips?

[DoninGA]

If your business trip is not overnight or not long enough that you need to stop for sleep or rest to properly perform your
duties, then the meals would not be an eligible employee business expense.

[charby]

define rest?

[SweetieJean]

Right, and your County/State doesn't matter. For example, the next town over from where I live is in a different county, and the next state is only 10 miles away.

[DoninGA · Accepted solution]

Go to IRS Publication 463, Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses - https://www.irs.gov/publications/p463

This rest requirement isn’t satisfied by merely napping in your car. You don’t have to be away from your tax home for a whole day or from dusk to dawn as long as your relief from duty is long enough to get necessary sleep or rest.

Example 1.

You are a railroad conductor. You leave your home terminal on a regularly scheduled round-trip run between two cities and return home 16 hours later. During the run, you have 6 hours off at your turnaround point where you eat two meals and rent a hotel room to get necessary sleep before starting the return trip. You are considered to be away from home.

Example 2.

You are a truck driver. You leave your terminal and return to it later the same day. You get an hour off at your turnaround point to eat. Because you aren’t off to get necessary sleep and the brief time off isn’t an adequate rest period, you aren’t traveling away from home.