Food Program & Standard Meal Deductions

[TomCopeland]

Minute Menu and meals

So I use mmk and I am on the food program.

I can only claim 3 meals and one snack. Where do I put the other snacks at in MMK so that I can claim ALL of the food that I served?

Track the snacks in the same place you enter all other meals and snacks. Minute Menu allows you to track up to six servings a day, per child.

[MarinaVanessa]

So I use mmk and I am on the food program.

I can only claim 3 meals and one snack. Where do I put the other snacks at in MMK so that I can claim ALL of the food that I served?

If you are on the food program you should be keeping track of all of the meals that you are serving to the daycare kids regardless of whether or not the food program will reimburse you for them all.

For instance, if you serve breakfast at 7am, morning snack at 9am, lunch at 11:30am, afternoon snack at 3pm and dinner at 5pm and you have a child that attends from 7am to 5:30pm and you feed him all of the above meals you should be keeping track of all of those meals in your food program paperwork. Your food program will then take those meal counts and reimburse you for 4 of them (usually the most larger/expensive ones). In some cases the food program will only count dinner if it's past a certain hour like past 6pm or 7pm so they will reimburse you for breakfast, lunch and 2 snacks but then you can claim all of the meals on your taxes later and also claim dinner.

Then at the end of year you will have all of your meal count claims and can claim all of the meals that you served on your taxes. The food program shouldn't hassle you for counting them all on your food claims, they'll simply only reimburse you for 4 meals.

[daycare]

If you are on the food program you should be keeping track of all of the meals that you are serving to the daycare kids regardless of whether or not the food program will reimburse you for them all.

For instance, if you serve breakfast at 7am, morning snack at 9am, lunch at 11:30am, afternoon snack at 3pm and dinner at 5pm and you have a child that attends from 7am to 5:30pm and you feed him all of the above meals you should be keeping track of all of those meals in your food program paperwork. Your food program will then take those meal counts and reimburse you for 4 of them (usually the most larger/expensive ones). In some cases the food program will only count dinner if it's past a certain hour like past 6pm or 7pm so they will reimburse you for breakfast, lunch and 2 snacks but then you can claim all of the meals on your taxes later and also claim dinner.

Then at the end of year you will have all of your meal count claims and can claim all of the meals that you served on your taxes. The food program shouldn't hassle you for counting them all on your food claims, they'll simply only reimburse you for 4 meals.

ok so when I have done just what you said in the past, I am told that the child is disallowed the meals because I can't claim more than xyz amount.......

I think I should call and ask my food program.....

[MarinaVanessa]

ok so when I have done just what you said in the past, I am told that the child is disallowed the meals because I can't claim more than xyz amount.......

I think I should call and ask my food program.....

That's a good idea. When I did it although my food rep kept telling me that some meals weren't counted because they only reimbursed for a specific number per day per child I kept marking my meals on MMK just as I had served them and left it up to the food program to pay me for the meals that I was entitled to be reimbursed for. I always double checked when I got the payment but I never had any problems about being reimbursed correctly. If your food program is being a stickler about it then you can keep track of your meals by using forms or a ledger or something like that.

Here's one example of something that you can use to keep track

https://dpi.wi.gov/files/forms/doc/pod1455.doc

You can always use it as a sample and create your own version of it in excel or something similar. For now you can go back and check your attendance records to determine which meals your DCK's were present for and recreate your meals counts based on the hours that they were in daycare. You'd have to go day by day but at least you can also claim the extra meals you served that the food program didn't cover.

[Alexandra]

Where exactly do you deduct it on your taxes?

[TomCopeland]

Food

Where exactly do you deduct it on your taxes?

Claim food expenses on Schedule C, line 28 Other (shown on the back of the form).


Join me for a webinar “2012 Tax Changes: How to Avoid Mistakes on Your Tax Return” Tuesday, February 12th at 8:30-10:00pm Eastern Time. The cost is $25 (100% tax deductible!). To register: http://events.r20.constantcontact.co...&llr=yatrx4cab

[Unregistered]

I only qualify for the Tier 2 deduction. I am thinking that it would be more beneficial for me to take the standard meal allowance at the end of the year. I am currently signed up for a food program, but may be going off of it because it seems to make more sense to just take the standard meal allowance. Thoughts?

[Margarete]

I only qualify for the Tier 2 deduction. I am thinking that it would be more beneficial for me to take the standard meal allowance at the end of the year. I am currently signed up for a food program, but may be going off of it because it seems to make more sense to just take the standard meal allowance. Thoughts?

You can still qualify to take the standard meal deduction at the end of the year if you are on the meal program. So you would claim the standard meal deduction per meal on your taxes, and also claim the income from the reimbursements. Here is one of Tom Copeland's posts, reed it and the blog he links in it too. http://www.tomcopelandblog.com/2013/...ent-rates.html