Tax Strategies for the Small Business Owner: Reduce Your Taxes and Fatten Your Profits

Meals and Entertainment

Look, we play the Star Spangled Banner before every game. You want us to pay income taxes, too?

—Bill Veeck

As discussed in Chapter 8, your meal expenses while traveling for business are deductible. Are other meal expenses deductible? What about entertainment expenses, such as taking a client to a show or a baseball game?

In this chapter we look at meal and entertainment expenses: what can be deducted and how. Some meal and entertainment expenses are not deductible; we let you know about those so you don’t take the nondeductible expenses.

Meal Expenses

You are allowed to deduct your meals while away from home on business. ...