What types of meal and entertainment expenses are 100% deductible on a business return?

If meals or entertainment are provided for the benefit of your employees, you can write off 100% of the cost as a business expense. This is an exception to the usual 50% write-off rule.

Common examples of expenses that can be written off at 100% include:

• Meal and entertainment expenses for a company picnic or holiday party.
• Free coffee, bottled water, donuts, etc. provided to employees at the place of business.
• Free food or beverages provided to the public for promotional purposes.
• Meals provided at the place of business to more than half of the employees as an enticement for working after-hours, weekends, or holidays.
• Cost of meals included on employee W-2 forms as taxable compensation.

After you've imported meal and entertainment expenses from QuickBooks into TurboTax Business, the program will ask you to enter the portion of those expenses that were attributable to a company party, picnic, or other company event.

The dollar amount you enter on that screen will be deducted at the 100% limit, as explained above.