Question

My wife has a direct sales business where she sells food. She also has a monthly food expense of $500 for her own consumption of the food. Can she claim this on her taxes

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
March 19, 2025
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Not directly. If she has purchased ingredients for the food she sells, then removing some of those ingredients for her own consumption will have the effect of lowering her profit from her sales. In that manner she is 'deducting' the costs of her own consumption already.

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S

sylvestre-r-marcAuthor

Thank you for the explanation, but, I'm not tracking 100%.

She is spending money to purchase food. The food she purchases directly she then consumes. She does not profit form the food she purchases and consumes. This food she purchases and consumes are her meals during the course of business operations.

Her weight loss and associated story is her marketing tool. She shares her story with other women. Some woman decide to enroll in the program... my wife does profit form the food that is purchased by these women.

A

AnnetteB6

Let me try a different way. I was assuming that she made the food that was sold versus purchasing something ready-made.

Also, with your additional explanation, I am assuming that she only receives a commission from other's purchases and she does not carry an inventory to sell directly to others. If there is an inventory that is sold to others, then the scenario is more like my original answer, only there would be an entry for items removed from inventory for personal use to account for your wife's consumption of the product.

The fact that the product being sold is pre-packaged meals becomes problematic for her being able to deduct the cost of the meals purchased for personal use only.

If the meals were consumed in a business setting (think Tupperware party or similar) where your wife and others were present to taste them and decide to place an order, then both the meals she consumed personally and those purchased for others would be a business expense. However, even if this were the case, the deduction may be limited to 50% of the cost because it is a meal expense.

An argument could be made that your wife's consumption of the meals serves as advertising for her business, but this may not hold up to an IRS audit because it would still be deducting a personal expense as a business expense.

[edited 3/22/2025 | 7:18 am PST]

@sylvestre-r-marc

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