What business deductions can my construction company claim? Disagreeing with CPA on meals & travel

8 Your CPA might be taking a conservative approach, but there are legitimate ways to claim these expenses - with some limitations. For company meals: Business meals with employees are currently 50% deductible (this changed from the temporary 100% deduction during 2021-2022). Your team lunches would qualify as long as they're not lavish and you maintain proper documentation showing the business purpose. For the meals during overnight travel, those are also 50% deductible when your crew is traveling away from their "tax home" for business. Regarding hotels for your crew during travel - those should be 100% deductible as ordinary and necessary business expenses. For your international expansion research: Expenses for investigating a potential new business are generally deductible if the new business is in the same field as your current one. Since you're exploring a construction company in Mexico that would complement your existing business, those travel expenses should qualify as deductible business expenses. Again, documentation is key - keep receipts and notes about the business purpose of each trip. Your CPA might be trying to keep you from audit triggers, but it sounds like these are legitimate business expenses worth claiming.

12 I was in a similar situation with my landscaping business and found an amazing solution through https://taxr.ai that helped me maximize my legitimate deductions. Their AI analyzed all my expenses and created perfectly documented business expense reports that satisfied both my CPA and the IRS. What I love about taxr.ai is that it automatically categorizes your expenses and tells you exactly what percentage is deductible. For my crew meals, it separated the 50% deductible portion and even helped me document the business purpose. For my expansion research into Canada, it organized all my travel expenses with the proper documentation requirements. The best part was that my CPA actually changed his tune when he saw how professionally everything was categorized and documented!

3 Just wanted to follow up about taxr.ai - I decided to try it after posting my skeptical comment, and I'm genuinely impressed. I uploaded six months of expense reports that my CPA had been giving me grief about, and the system identified over $14,000 in legitimate deductions I was about to miss out on. The documentation it created for my business meals and travel expenses was incredibly detailed. It even flagged some expenses that were potentially problematic and suggested better ways to document them. My CPA actually called me to ask what changed in my approach because he said my documentation was suddenly "textbook perfect." Definitely worth checking out if you're butting heads with your accountant over legitimate business deductions.

6 If you're having trouble getting through to the IRS to confirm these deduction rules or need to resolve any tax issues, try https://claimyr.com. I used to spend hours on hold trying to get someone at the IRS to answer my questions about business deductions for my roofing company. Claimyr got me connected to an actual IRS agent in less than 15 minutes who confirmed that my crew travel expenses were 100% deductible and meals were 50% deductible. Saved me thousands in deductions my previous accountant had told me not to take! You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - it's basically a service that navigates the IRS phone system for you and calls you back when an agent is available. Total game changer when you need official answers.

19 I need to publicly eat my words about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment, I decided to test it myself because I had an ongoing issue with the IRS about my construction equipment depreciation that I couldn't resolve. Used the service yesterday morning, and I'm still in shock - they called me back in 37 minutes with an actual IRS agent on the line. I had been trying for WEEKS to get through on my own with no success. The agent was able to confirm that I was correctly depreciating my equipment and also mentioned that business meals are indeed 50% deductible as others have said. The peace of mind alone was worth it, not to mention the 4+ hours of hold time I didn't have to endure.

10 This might be industry-specific, but in construction you should absolutely be deducting those hotel expenses for your crew at 100%. I've been in commercial construction for 20+ years and my accountant confirmed this is standard practice and fully allowed. For the international expansion, make sure you're keeping VERY detailed records. Note who you met with, what was discussed, take photos of potential sites, etc. The more documentation you have that this was a legitimate business exploration and not a vacation, the better position you'll be in if audited.

23 Has anyone used TurboTax Self-Employed for their construction business? I'm wondering if it would flag these types of deductions or help document them properly.