Line 24b

Enter your deductible business meal expenses. This includes expenses for meals while traveling away from home for business. Your deductible business meal expenses are a percentage of your actual business meal expenses or standard meal allowance. See Amount of deduction , later, for the percentage that applies to your actual meal expenses or standard meal allowance. In most cases, the percentage is 50%.

Do not include entertainment expenses on this line.

Business meal expenses.

You can deduct a percentage of the actual cost of a meal if the following conditions are met.

The meal expense was an ordinary and necessary expense in carrying on your trade or business.

The expense was not lavish or extravagant under the circumstances.

You or your employee was present at the meal.

The meal was provided to a current or potential business customer, client, consultant, or similar business contact.

In the case of food or beverages provided during or at an entertainment event, the food and beverages were purchased separately from the entertainment, or the cost of the food and beverages was stated separately from the cost of the entertainment on one or more bills, invoices, or receipts.

You cannot avoid the entertainment disallowance rule by inflating the amount charged for food and beverages.

See Regulations sections 1.274-11 and 1.274-12 for examples and more information.

Standard meal allowance.

Instead of deducting the actual cost of your meals while traveling away from home, you can use the standard meal allowance for your daily meals and incidental expenses. Under this method, you deduct a specified amount, depending on where you travel, instead of keeping records of your actual meal expenses. However, you must still keep records to prove the time, place, and business purpose of your travel.

The standard meal allowance is the federal meals and incidental expenses (M&IE) rate. You can find these rates for locations inside and outside the continental United States by going to the General Services Administration’s website at GSA.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates/mie-breakdown .

See chapter 2 of Pub. 463 for details on how to figure your deduction using the standard meal allowance, including special rules for partial days of travel. For special per diem rates and rules of high cost locales, see Notice 2024-68, available at IRS.gov/irb/2024-41_IRB#NOT-2024-68 . Notice 2024-68 provides the rates and list of high-cost localities for the period October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025. For subsequent periods, see Notice 2025-54, available at IRS.gov/irb/2025-41_IRB#NOT-2025-54 .

Amount of deduction.

In most cases, you can deduct only 50% of your business meal expenses, including meals incurred while away from home on business. However, for individuals subject to the Department of Transportation (DOT) hours of service limits, the percentage is increased to 80% for business meals consumed during or incident to any period of duty for which those limits are in effect. Individuals subject to the DOT hours of service limits include the following.

Certain air transportation workers (such as pilots, crew, dispatchers, mechanics, and control tower operators) who are under Federal Aviation Administration regulations.

Interstate truck operators who are under DOT regulations.

Certain merchant mariners who are under Coast Guard regulations.

However, you can fully deduct meals and incidentals furnished or reimbursed to an employee if you properly treat the expense as wages subject to withholding. You can also fully deduct meals and incidentals provided to a nonemployee to the extent the expenses are includible in the gross income of that person and reported on Form 1099-NEC. See chapter 5 of Pub. 15 , Employer’s Tax Guide, for details and other exceptions. See also chapter 8 of Pub. 334 .

Daycare providers.

If you qualify as a family daycare provider, you can use the standard meal and snack rates, instead of actual costs, to figure the deductible cost of meals and snacks provided to eligible children. If you receive reimbursement under a food program of the Department of Agriculture, only deduct the cost of food that exceeds reimbursement, if any. See Pub. 587 for details, including recordkeeping requirements.