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Maximizing Travel, Entertainment, and Meal Deductions: Meals after the OBBBA, Documentation, Local Travel vs. Away From Home

A live 110-minute CPE webinar with interactive Q&A

This program is included with the Strafford CPE Pass. Click for more information.
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Wednesday, October 22, 2025

1:00pm-2:50pm EDT, 10:00am-11:50am PDT

Early Registration Discount Deadline, Friday, September 26, 2025

or call 1-800-926-7926
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This webinar will discuss the rules and documentation requirements for travel, meals, and entertainment deductions. Our panel of knowledgeable tax professionals will explain what constitutes deductible expenses, including the disallowance of and exceptions to the deductibility of employer-provided meals under the OBBBA. The panel will offer tips to maximize the tax savings from these expenditures.

Description

Businesses frequently incur expenses for travel, meals, and entertainment, and these expenditures can provide lucrative tax deductions. The rules surrounding these deductions are complex. Most recently, the OBBBA has disallowed deductions for employer-provided meals with certain narrow exceptions. Meal expenses, for others, however, are deductible at 100%, 80%, 50%, or 0%, depending on the nature of the expenditure.

To claim these deductions, a taxpayer must retain documentation that includes the name and location of the expenditure, the date, the attendees, the business purpose of the expense, and a receipt or invoice. All expenses must be ordinary and necessary to be deductible. Even with appropriate support, choosing between the standard mileage rate, actual expenses, and applicable per diem rates can be problematic. Taxpayers and their advisers need to understand the rules for deducting travel, meals, and entertainment expenses to maximize these deductions.

Listen as our panel of federal income tax experts reviews the rules and recordkeeping requirements for travel, meals, and entertainment to ensure taxpayers receive the maximum deductions they are entitled to for these expenses.

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Outline

  1. Travel, meal, and entertainment expenses: introduction
  2. Travel
    1. Local transportation
    2. Away from home
    3. Written requirement
  3. Meals after the OBBBA
  4. Automobile expenses
    1. Mileage
    2. Actual costs
    3. Form 4562, Depreciation and Amortization
  5. Entertainment
  6. Recordkeeping
  7. The Cohan Rule
  8. Per diem payments
    1. Allowances
    2. Standard per diem rates
  9. Recent cases and rulings

Benefits

The panel will cover these and other critical issues:

  • OBBBA's disallowance of the deduction for employer-provided meals
  • Applying the appropriate percentage when deducting meal expenses
  • When IRS per diem rates should be utilized for out-of-town lodging, meals, and incidental expenses
  • Understanding the written requirements for travel deductions
  • Recent cases and rulings regarding deductions for travel, entertainment, and meals

Faculty

Smart, Connor
Connor Smart, CPA
Senior Manager
Baker Newman Noyes

Mr. Smart is a senior manager in BNN’s tax practice. He works predominantly in our nonprofit and...  |  Read More

Attend on October 22

Early Discount (through 09/26/25)

CPE credit processing is available for an additional fee of $39.
CPE processing must be ordered prior to the event. See NASBA details.

Cannot Attend October 22?

Early Discount (through 09/26/25)

CPE credit is not available on downloads.

CPE On-Demand

See NASBA details.

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