Tom Copeland Please

[grandmom]

Tom,

Someone on here mentioned that if we do a cooking project with the kids that we can deduct the cost of the food used as a business expense - say *project* expense similar to art supplies. Then if we take the standard deduction for food served, it would be a double deduction. Is this possible?

And further, I claimed the seeds for the garden as a *project* expense, but serve the food to the kids. That's the same thing isn't it?

Thanks for answering.

[TomCopeland]

Food deductions

You can never count one expense twice. If you do a cooking project with the children and the food serves as a substitute for a meal, then don't count this as a food expense if you are using the standard meal allowance method. But, if your children built a gingerbread house that was used as a decoration, you could count this expense as an "activity" because it wasn't a substitute for a meal.

If you use the standard meal allowance and you ate the food you grew, don't count the cost of the seeds.

[grandmom]

Thanks Tom.

[Unregistered]

But can i count the time spent picking the beans and berries I then feed to the children?

[TomCopeland]

counting time

Yes, count the time picking the food for the children. If you (or another family member) also ate the same food, don't count all the time.