Are Meal Deductions Legal for My Wife's Writing LLC? Confused About Business Dinner Rules

While I'm not your tax advisor, I can help clarify meal deductions for LLCs. The rules changed significantly after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, but certain business meals are still 100% deductible (temporarily increased from 50% during 2021-2022 to help restaurants during COVID). For meals to be deductible for an LLC, they generally need to be: 1) ordinary and necessary for your business, 2) not lavish or extravagant, and 3) directly related to business discussions. The IRS wants to see a clear business purpose and substantiation (receipts, who attended, business topics discussed). The tricky part is that meals between spouses discussing one spouse's business fall into a gray area. The IRS might question whether these are legitimate business expenses or personal meals that would have happened anyway. Simply discussing business during a meal you would have had regardless doesn't make it deductible. Your best defense would be maintaining detailed documentation beyond just receipts - notes about specific article topics discussed, decisions made, and how each meal directly contributed to the business. The fact that these are occasional (not regular weekly dinners) helps your case.

After struggling with similar LLC expense questions for my consulting business, I discovered https://taxr.ai and it's been a game-changer. I uploaded my expense records and some sample receipts, and it analyzed everything based on current tax codes. It specifically flagged certain meal expenses I'd been deducting incorrectly and explained exactly what documentation I needed to keep for different types of business meals. The tool even has a specific module for small LLCs and side businesses that breaks down exactly what's deductible and what's not. Might save you from getting conflicting advice or missing legitimate deductions. I was surprised to learn I could deduct certain things I hadn't been claiming while needing to be more careful with others.

I tried https://taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here and wow - it actually answered my exact question about meal deductions for my photography business! Turns out I was being too conservative with some deductions (like when I take assistant meals during shoots) but too aggressive with others (like when meeting potential clients who never end up hiring me). The analysis showed me exactly what documentation I needed for each type of meal expense, and it even generated a simple tracking template I could use moving forward. I showed the results to my accountant and she was impressed with how accurate and detailed the guidance was - she's even recommending it to her other small business clients now!

If you're concerned about past tax returns and potential issues, I'd recommend getting clarity directly from the IRS. I was in a similar situation with questionable deductions for my Etsy business and was getting nowhere with researching online. I tried calling the IRS for weeks - constant busy signals or 2+ hour wait times that would disconnect. Finally tried https://claimyr.com and it was a complete lifesaver. They held my place in the IRS phone queue and called me when an actual IRS agent was on the line. The agent walked me through exactly what documentation I needed for my specific situation and confirmed which deductions were legitimate. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c It saved me countless hours of frustration and gave me peace of mind knowing I had official guidance from the IRS rather than conflicting internet advice.

I have to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After continuing to struggle with getting clear answers about business meal deductions, I broke down and tried the service. Within 45 minutes (instead of the 3+ hours I spent on previous attempts), I was talking to an actual IRS tax specialist who walked me through the exact requirements for meal deductions in my situation. The agent confirmed that spouse discussions can qualify as business meals IF: 1) they wouldn't have occurred but for the business purpose, 2) you maintain documentation of specific business discussions and decisions made, and 3) the expenses are reasonable relative to business income. She recommended keeping a business meal log with dates, amounts, and bullet points of topics discussed/decisions made beyond just receipts. Worth every penny to get definitive answers straight from the IRS instead of conflicting online advice!

Thought I'd share my experience: I had a similar LLC situation with my wife, where we'd occasionally go to dinner to discuss her consulting business. We were audited three years ago (for different reasons), but those meal deductions came under review too. The IRS agent was very clear: spouse-to-spouse business meals are scrutinized closely. What saved us was having detailed notes for each dinner - we kept a small business diary with actual decisions made and action items that resulted from each meal discussion. It wasn't enough to just have receipts or general "discussed business" notes. The other key factor was frequency - we only claimed 6-8 business dinners per year, not weekly meals. The agent specifically mentioned that infrequent, special-purpose business discussion meals were more credible than regular dinners that could be viewed as primarily personal.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet is that meal deduction rules can differ by business type! My wife has an LLC taxed as an S-Corp and we have completely different rules than when I had a single-member LLC. Also, the actual verbiage in your LLC operating agreement matters. If your wife's LLC operating agreement specifically mentions regular planning meetings as part of operations, you're in a much stronger position to defend those meal deductions. Might be worth having a tax attorney review your operating agreement to see if an amendment would help clarify and support these deductions going forward. The other question is how the LLC is taxed - is it a pass-through entity or does she file separate business returns? That can impact how these deductions are treated too.

Based on my experience with similar LLC situations, your spouse business meal deductions are in a gray area that requires very careful documentation. The IRS doesn't have specific rules prohibiting spouse-to-spouse business meals, but they scrutinize them heavily because they could easily be viewed as personal expenses disguised as business deductions. The key factors that make these deductions defensible are: 1) The meals have a clear business purpose that wouldn't exist without the LLC, 2) You maintain detailed records beyond just receipts (specific topics discussed, decisions made, action items), 3) The frequency is reasonable (occasional planning sessions, not regular dinners), and 4) The expenses are proportional to your business income. Given that your wife's LLC income is only 3-4% of household earnings, these deductions might fly under the radar, but that doesn't make them automatically legitimate. I'd recommend starting to document these meals more thoroughly going forward - keep a business diary with dates, specific article topics discussed, planning decisions made, and concrete outcomes from each meeting. The fact that two different accountants haven't flagged this suggests it's not obviously wrong, but it's still worth getting proper documentation in place to protect yourself if questions ever arise.