I'm an expedite courier so I do a lot of overnight business travel and also business travel that's out-of-town but not overnight (say 5 hours out and 5 hours back, for example). When I travel overnight, I can take the first-and-last-day standard meal allowance, regardless of how much of that amount I actually spend. (right?) When I do day trips, I can not take the standard meal allowance. (right?) Usually, you have to choose for the year if you're going to use standard meal allowance or actual cost but, can I take the standard allowance for overnight travel days and also deduct the actual cost from non-overnight travel days? Or by taking even one standard meal allowance while traveling, do I give up the opportunity to deduct the actual costs of non-overnight-traveling business meals for the year?
Are you self-employed or are you a W-2 employee? If you are a W-2 employee you cannot deduct job-related expenses on a federal tax return---not since 2017.
If you are self-employed your business expenses go on your Schedule C.
Self-employed 1099 independent contractor so, I'm talking about within the schedule C.
If you are a sole proprietor / self employed, you can only use the Per Diem rate for meals and incidental expenses. Meal expenses are deductible if your business trip is overnight or long enough that you need to stop for substantial sleep or rest to properly perform your duties- so yes to overnight trips, most likely no on the day trips. However, the first and last day you travel the Per Diem is generally calculated at 75% of the full rate- so if you do mostly one-night trips, you would take the day rate and multiply by .75 to get your deduction for the day.
You can figure all your travel meal expenses using either of the following methods:
This generally means that you are not locked into one method, so if your expenses are higher than the M&IE rate, be sure to save the receipts so you can deduct the higher amount (but you must have all the expenses for that day so be sure EVERY receipt has the date very legible if you use both methods).
You still must substantiate the time, place, and business purpose of their travel expenses for each travel day, but you do not have to keep track of every expense receipt.