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This will be my first year claiming & although it is not a bunch of $$$ (only cared for one family) I will admit I did not know about all the deductions I could take (for food, gas, etc). My problem is I did not keep receipts as I was fairly clueless as to being able to deduct food, etc. So am I out of luck? Do you really have to keep all your grocery receipts if there is daycare food included on there? Am I just unable to deduct anything since I don't have receipts? Thank you!
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Are you on the food program? You can just do the standard IRS deduction for meals, you just need to have a record of all the meals you served to this child..and you can't deduct gas, just mileage so again, records of all the miles you've driven, just for daycare, you can't claim mileage for everything, only if your trip was over 50% sole buisness purpose. -
You don't have to be on the food program to deduct the standard deduction for meals.
You can deduct 1.19 for breakfast, 2.21 for lunch, .66 for snack. So go through your daily enrollment and figure how many breakfasts, lunches and snacks you served and multiply them by the allowable amount. You can not claim meals for your own children, just the kids you watch. You do not need to have kept your grocery receipts!Comment
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I didn't mean you had to be on the food program, she would just already have all the meal counts if she were.Comment
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Also keep in mind that you can deduct more than the 3 meals/snacks that you are allowed to deduct on the food program on your taxes. I think it's up to six per day (only if you actually served that many, of course), if I remember correctly.Comment
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Anythingspossible is correct. I have saved all of my grocery receipts too but I found it is too much trouble to go through the receipts but I must have to save for tissue, toilet papers, baby wipes, some supplies, and paper towels to use on my taxes.
Now it got me thinking what about drinks? I bought a whole milk, apple juices, and any juice boxes for the daycare kids only. Do I have included standard deduction for meals or use different deduction?Comment
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Food
Everyone's responses to janarae are correct. If you use the standard meal allowance rate drinks are included in this, so you don't get an extra deduction for drinks. You can always claim the actual cost of your food (including drinks) if you save all your business and personal food receipts.Comment
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The first week of this year, I decided to do my grocery shopping seperately, because I figured I would get a better deduction, especially since I buy all organic fruits and vegetables for daycare, and you know what, the standard deduction actually gives me more money.Comment
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Thank you, thank you!!!! I appreciate the information!Comment
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Where do you list the meal expenses? Maybe I am looking over it? I am using tax slayerComment
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Food
Enter your food expenses on Schedule C, line 27 Other Expenses.Comment
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