20.21 Your Personal Share of Entertainment Costs
If the entertaining occurred while on a business trip away from home, you deduct your own meal costs as travel expenses away from home (20.6). If the entertaining occurred within the locality of your regular place of business, the IRS will generally not disallow your deduction of your own part of the meal cost unless you are claiming a substantial amount that includes personal living expenses. In such a case, which generally is limited to situations where personal meals are regularly claimed as part of an “abusive” pattern, the IRS will follow the stricter Tax Court rule (sometimes referred to as the “Sutter” rule) and allow only that part of the meal cost that exceeds what you would usually spend on yourself when alone.
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