Meal Deductions

[Sunchimes]

I am not on the food program but claim meal deductions. I have a 1 year old with some special eating needs. As we are transitioning him to solid foods, I can't figure out which meals to claim. I am furnishing all of his milk. Some meals, mom brings his main food for lunch but I furnish his vegetables and fruit.

When mom furnishes part of the meal and I furnish some, how does that count on the deductions? Is there any way to deduct when I furnish the milk but she furnishes the food?

[Michael]

Couple of threads for you to read through: http://daycare.com/forum/tags.php?tag=meal+deductions

http://daycare.com/forum/tags.php?tag=deduction+-+meals

[TomCopeland]

Originally Posted by Sunchimes

I am not on the food program but claim meal deductions. I have a 1 year old with some special eating needs. As we are transitioning him to solid foods, I can't figure out which meals to claim. I am furnishing all of his milk. Some meals, mom brings his main food for lunch but I furnish his vegetables and fruit.

When mom furnishes part of the meal and I furnish some, how does that count on the deductions? Is there any way to deduct when I furnish the milk but she furnishes the food?

You can either claim food expenses using the standard meal allowance rule or the actual food expenses method.

If you use the standard meal allowance rule you can deduct $1.27 for breakfast, $2.38 for one lunch and one supper and $.71 for up to 3 snacks per day, per child. If you serve any part of a meal you can count the meal. Using this method means you don't need to save any food receipts.

If you use the actual food expenses method you must save food receipts and estimate the actual cost of the food you serve to children. So, if you bought milk for one meal and the parents brought the rest of the food for that meal, you could deduct the cost of the milk.

[Sunchimes]

That's good news Tom, thanks. I've always used the standard deduction method, but I wasn't sure if I was allowed if I only furnished partial meals. Yea!