If you qualify as a family daycare provider, you can use the standard meal and snack rates, instead of actual costs, to compute the deductible cost of meals and snacks provided to eligible children. For these purposes:
A family daycare provider is a person engaged in the business of providing family daycare.
Family daycare is childcare provided to eligible children in the home of the family daycare provider. The care must be non-medical, not involve a transfer of legal custody, and generally last less than 24 hours each day.
Eligible children are minor children receiving family daycare in the home of the family daycare provider. Eligible children do not include children who are full-time or part-time residents in the home where the childcare is provided or children whose parents or guardians are residents of the same home. Eligible children do not include children who receive daycare services for personal reasons of the provider. For example, if a provider provides daycare services for a relative as a favor to that relative, that child is not an eligible child.
You may compute the deductible cost of each meal and snack you actually purchased and served to an eligible child during the time period you provided family daycare using the standard meal and snack rates shown in Table 2. You may use the standard meal and snack rates for a maximum of one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner, and three snacks per eligible child per day. If you receive reimbursement for a particular meal or snack, you may deduct only the portion of the applicable standard meal or snack rate that exceeds the amount of the reimbursement.
You may use either the standard meal and snack rates or actual costs to calculate the deductible cost of food provided to eligible children in the family daycare for any particular tax year. If you choose to use the standard meal and snack rates for a particular tax year, you must use the rates for all your deductible food costs for eligible children during that tax year. However, if you use the standard meal and snack rates in any tax year, you may use actual costs to compute the deductible cost of food in any other tax year.
If you use the standard meal and snack rates, you must maintain records to substantiate the computation of the total amount deducted for the cost of food provided to eligible children. The records kept should include the name of each child, dates and hours of attendance in the daycare, and the type and quantity of meals and snacks served. This information may be recorded in a log similar to the one shown in Exhibit A.
The standard meal and snack rates include beverages, but do not include non-food supplies used for food preparation, service, or storage, such as containers, paper products, or utensils. These expenses may be claimed as a separate deduction on your Schedule C (Form 1040).
Table 2. 2003 Standard Meal and Snack Rates
| Location of Family Daycare Provider | Breakfast | Lunch and Dinner | Snack |
| States other than Alaska and Hawaii | $0.98 | $1.80 | $0.53 |
| Alaska | $1.55 | $2.93 | $0.87 |
| Hawaii | $1.13 | $2.11 | $0.63 |
Information courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service.
