Why is Turbotax not adding up my business expenses correctly?

[Anonymous]

When I manually enter in each of my business expenses, I get one number (the same as my bookkeeping program, with rounding). The number that is showing as my "reported" number is no where close to what my itemized expenses are. My program appears to have done a similar thing for my 2017 taxes as well. This year, the number is about $205 "short", and last year, it reported about $151 "short". This is not due to a rounding error. Something is not being reported. Please help.

[Anonymous]

I can't seem to delete my question, so I'll answer it for someone else who may not be as business saavy (like me). Meals are only able to be 50% deducted, instead of 100%. The difference in my itemized expenses vs. reported expenses are the exact 50% of my meals that I itemized. 🙂 

[lander]

this is happening to my Misc Expenses. not sure why

[ReneeM7122]

You are correct.  Generally, you can deduct 50% of the cost of meals.

The IRS allows business travelers to deduct business-related meals []and hotel costs], as long as they are reasonable considering the circumstances—not lavish or extravagant.

You would have to eat if you were home, so this might explain why the IRS limits meal deductions to 50% of either the:

• Actual cost of the meal
• Standard meal allowance

This allowance is based on the federal meals and incidental expense per diem rate that depends on where and when you travel.

Here's a TurboTax article about tax deductions for business travelers, including meals.

@Anonymous