Confused About Grocery Receipts??

[MommyMuffin]

I have been doing daycare for 3 months and I have not kept any grocery receipts. I only have 3 dcks and one of them is breast fed.

I dont buy seperate food for daycare because it would go bad if I didnt use it up. We just share all the food.
Do I keep my grocery receipts and do a t/s% or something? I am on the food program...do I still need to keep receipts for tax purposes?

Thanks

[AnythingsPossible]

As long as you use the standard deduction for meals, there is no reason to save grocery receipts. You just need to track the amount of meals you serve. My food program sends me a statement at the end of the year that states how many meals I claimed, however, if you serve any additional snacks that can't be claimed on the food program, make sure and note that and also any meals that get disallowed on the food program for whatever reason. Keep records of meal counts, not receipts.

[marniewon]

The best/easiest way to keep track of food for daycare is to use the standard IRS allowance for meals. The standard allowance for meals is:

Breakfast: $1.19
Lunch: $2.21
Snack: $0.66

Do you use MMK for submitting for the food program? There's a place in there where you can print out a copy of all meals you claimed on the food program and what type of meals (lunch, snack, etc).

As far as keeping receipts, you will want to do that for anything 100% dc related (like wipes/diapers, if you don't have your own children in dipes), or anything you can t/s like cleaning supplies, toilet paper, paper towels, etc.

[MommyMuffin]

thanks for the info.

I use MMK and I am just trying to figure out all the neat things it does. I will have to look for the meal count sheet you are talking about.

[legomom922]

Originally Posted by marniewon

The best/easiest way to keep track of food for daycare is to use the standard IRS allowance for meals. The standard allowance for meals is:

Breakfast: $1.19
Lunch: $2.21
Snack: $0.66

Do you use MMK for submitting for the food program? There's a place in there where you can print out a copy of all meals you claimed on the food program and what type of meals (lunch, snack, etc).

I am not on the food program, but plan on using the standard deduction, but I never kept track of what I fed her! Was I suppose to? or is that for the food program only?

[marniewon]

Originally Posted by legomom922

I am not on the food program, but plan on using the standard deduction, but I never kept track of what I fed her! Was I suppose to? or is that for the food program only?

I'm not an expert, but my way of thinking is, if she was in your care, she would have had to eat at your house. Do you have a sign in sheet that you can look back on to figure out how many meals per day she was fed in your care? I would think that as long as you have some way to prove that she was there for the meals that you are claiming, you should be fine.

Editing to answer the actual question...LOL: As far as writing down/keeping track of every single food that you offered her, I don't believe you need to do that unless you are on the food program.

[TomCopeland]

You don't need to keep records of what food you served - just a record showing how many meals and snacks were served to each child. You could reconstruct this by looking at attendance records. You could also get the parents to sign a note showing the number of meals and snacks that can be used as a verification by you.