The per diem meal deduction lets qualifying taxpayers claim a flat federal daily rate for meals eaten while traveling away from their tax home on business, instead of saving every restaurant receipt. For the 2025–2026 travel year, the simplified rate is $86 per day in high-cost U.S. cities and $74 per day elsewhere in the continental United States, and you deduct 50% of that total on your return (80% if you are a transportation worker regulated by DOT hours-of-service rules).1Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2025-54 Most W-2 employees cannot use this deduction at all.
Who Can Claim It
Two groups of taxpayers can deduct travel meals. The larger group is the self-employed: sole proprietors, independent contractors, freelancers, and partners in a partnership. The smaller group is a narrow set of employees who still file Form 2106 — Armed Forces reservists, qualified performing artists, fee-basis state or local government officials, and employees with impairment-related work expenses.2Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2106 (2025)
Ordinary W-2 employees are out. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the itemized deduction for unreimbursed employee business expenses starting in 2018, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, made that elimination permanent.3Congress.gov. H.R.1 – 119th Congress (2025-2026) If your employer does not reimburse your travel meals and you do not fit one of the four Form 2106 categories, there is no personal deduction to take.
What Counts as Business Travel
Being eligible is not enough on its own. The meal has to be eaten while you are traveling away from your tax home, which the IRS defines as the entire city or general area where your main place of business is located — not where you live.4Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 511, Business Travel Expenses A Denver-based consultant flying to Chicago is traveling; the same consultant driving to a client on the other side of Denver is not.
The trip also has to satisfy the sleep-or-rest rule. Your work must keep you away long enough that you need sleep or rest before returning safely, which in practice means an overnight stay.4Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 511, Business Travel Expenses A long day trip does not qualify, no matter how early you left or how late you got back. The assignment must be temporary and clearly business-related; an indefinite move to another location does not count as travel.
Current Per Diem Rates
The standard meal allowance uses Meal and Incidental Expenses (M&IE) rates published by the federal government. The General Services Administration sets location-specific daily rates for cities and counties in the continental United States, and the State Department sets rates for foreign destinations.5U.S. General Services Administration. Per Diem Rates If you would rather not look up each city individually, the IRS publishes a simplified high-low method.
High-Low Simplified Rates
Under IRS Notice 2025-54, covering travel on or after October 1, 2025, the M&IE rate is $86 per day for high-cost localities and $74 per day for all other locations in the continental United States.1Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2025-54 You can use these two rates in place of the city-by-city GSA amounts, but you cannot switch methods mid-year for the same employee or the same trip.
Transportation Worker Rates
Taxpayers subject to Department of Transportation hours-of-service limits use their own flat rates: $80 per day for travel within the continental United States and $86 per day for travel outside it.1Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2025-54 This category includes interstate truck and bus drivers, airline pilots and mechanics, certain railroad employees, and merchant mariners regulated by the Coast Guard.6Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463 (2025), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
Incidentals-Only Rate
If your meals are all covered but you still pay small out-of-pocket travel costs, the incidentals-only rate is $5 per day for any location.1Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2025-54 The incidental portion of the M&IE rate is narrow: it covers only fees and tips paid to porters, baggage carriers, hotel staff, and ship staff.6Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463 (2025), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses Laundry, lodging taxes, phone calls, and cab fares between hotel and restaurant are not incidentals and must be tracked separately as actual travel costs if you want to deduct them.
Choosing Per Diem or Actual Costs
You can either track actual meal costs with receipts or use the per diem method. Most self-employed travelers prefer per diem because it eliminates meal receipts entirely. You have to pick one method and stay with it for the full trip; mixing actual receipts on some days and per diem on others within the same trip is not allowed. The 50% or 80% limit applies either way, at the very end of the calculation.
Reducing the Allowance for Provided Meals
When someone else pays for a meal — a hotel breakfast included with the room, a conference lunch, a client dinner — you cannot claim the full daily allowance for that day. The GSA publishes a breakdown table assigning fixed dollar values to breakfast, lunch, and dinner at each M&IE tier, plus the incidentals share.7U.S. General Services Administration. M&IE Breakdowns At the $74 daily rate, for example, the three meals together total $69 and incidentals take the remaining $5. Subtract the value assigned to any meal that was provided, then claim what is left.
For rates above $265 per day, which appear at certain high-cost international destinations, the allocation follows a percentage formula: 15% for breakfast, 25% for lunch, and 40% for dinner, with the rest going to incidentals.7U.S. General Services Administration. M&IE Breakdowns
Applying the 50% or 80% Limit
Add up your eligible daily allowances for the year, subtract for any provided meals, and then apply the deduction percentage. For most taxpayers, only 50% of eligible meal expenses are deductible. If your adjusted per diem total is $3,000, the actual deduction on your return is $1,500. Transportation workers subject to DOT hours-of-service rules use 80% instead, so the same $3,000 becomes a $2,400 deduction.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 274 – Disallowance of Certain Entertainment, Etc., Expenses
Records You Need
The per diem method eliminates individual meal receipts, but it does not eliminate documentation. You still need proof of the trip itself: dates of travel, destination, and business purpose. A travel log or calendar that notes departure and return times, the client or project, and the location of your work is the backbone of the file. Hotel itineraries and conference agendas are worth keeping too, since they show which meals were provided and support any pro-rated calculations.
If you use actual expenses instead of per diem, the IRS requires receipts for any single expense of $75 or more, and each receipt should show the date, place, and amount.9Internal Revenue Service. Travel and Entertainment Expenses Frequently Asked Questions Meals under $75 still need a log entry or bank record but not a physical receipt.
Keep everything for at least three years after filing, which matches the standard IRS assessment window.10Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records Hold on longer if your income fluctuates or you have filed amendments, since a 25% or greater underreporting of income extends the IRS’s reach to six years.
Where to Report the Deduction
Sole proprietors and single-member LLC owners report the final figure — after applying the 50% limit — on Schedule C, line 24b.11Internal Revenue Service. Schedule C (Form 1040) – Profit or Loss From Business The narrow group of employees who still qualify use Form 2106 to compute the deductible portion, then move it to the appropriate line of their 1040.2Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2106 (2025) Partners follow the reporting rules for their partnership return.
Penalty Risk
An accuracy-related penalty of 20% of the underpayment applies when the IRS finds that a meal deduction was overstated because of negligence or a substantial understatement of income.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6662 – Imposition of Accuracy-Related Penalty on Underpayments The two mistakes that most often trigger it are claiming per diem for trips that lacked a genuine business purpose and failing to reduce the allowance for meals someone else paid for. Contemporaneous records — a running log kept as the year happens, not reconstructed at filing time — are the strongest defense against both problems.