When claiming employee expenses in the simplified method do I enter the total amount of all meals x 23.00 in the cost of meal line? Or total amount x 23.00 divided by 2

Using the simplified method, you are allowed to have a meal every four hours starting four hours after your eligible travel period begins. This is up to a total of three meals per day at a rate of $23 per meal. In most cases, people who travel for work may only claim 50% of their meals and beverage expenses. However, if you are a long-haul truck driver, you can deduct 80% of these expenses.

So, for example, if you want to claim three meals per day you would do the following calculation, multiply the meal rate of $23.00 by 3 meals for a total of $69.00 and if you enter the total of $69.00 into TurboTax, the software will do the calculation and reduce that by 50% and the total will show up on your detailed tax summary as $34.50 which is the amount you may claim. Therefore, you would want to enter the full amount on the line then TurboTax will calculate and reduce the amount by 50% for you, and the amount you may claim will show on your detailed tax summary.

To find out more about employment expenses for transport employees, please see the link below:

Employment Expenses of Transport Employees