Meals for police officers

[oceanlovin'ea]

Is there something out there that I am not aware of about meals for police officers? Why would they get to deduct meals? Seems to me it is like truckers that drive locally. Everyone has to eat.

Linda, EA

[Koss]

Police Officers

It's an urban myth.

There's a tax court case where the Court held that a state trooper could deduct the cost of his meals because the department required the troopers to eat their meals at the restaurants located within the tollway rest stops (and did not provide any reimbursement).

The court's decision was based on very specific facts.

But ever since then, cops have been hearing that they can deduct their meals while on duty.

BMK

[Koss]

Deductions

Now, donuts are a different matter. The cost of donuts is fully deductible.

Donuts are an ordinary and necessary business expense of any uniformed police officer.

BMK

This post is a satire.

[Koss]

Christey v. United States

It wasn't a tax court case. It was the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The rules in effect at the time were interpreted to mean that Minnesota state troopers were not allowed to bring meals from home and eat in the police car. They were required to eat at a restaurant "adjacent to the highway."

They also had to inform the dispatcher when they were eating, and provide the phone number of the restaurant.

This was 1988. No cell phones.

Here's the decision:

http://openjurist.org/841/f2d/809/christey-v-united-states-l-pillsbury-l

BMK

[FEDUKE404]

Also worth noting

...from some recent TTB posts, if you're a police officer in Hawaii you get to deduct just about everything, likely to include even the doughnuts.

FE

[oceanlovin'ea]

I'll have to ask if that amount includes his donuts....lol

Thanks everyone

Linda, EA

[taxea]

Koss that would apply only if they are Dunkin Donuts or was it Wenchells....I can't remember

[David1980]

I once dealt with an officer named Duncan. I felt bad for him.

[mblatour]

I remember dealing with this one too......I had to research it and ended up showing it wasn't allowed. My cop was NOT happy. He didn't come back the next year and my repeat client rate is VERY high and I grow my business 100% based off of referrals. Seems to me from what I've read over the year, officers can get really touchy when a fellow officer tells them that their tax preparer says they can do it and we tell them they can't.

[ttbtaxes]

Let those clients go. They are nothing but trouble. Let preparer "X" get a goggle of them and deduct meals on every return.

Nowadays, with vastly enhanced computer modeling, the IRS could easily design a search ... "Give me every return that has meals, police officer listed as occupation, and sort by PTIN."

Preparer X now has a nightmare on his hands.

[JohnH]

I agree it should be simple to do a sort like this, but we learned a couple of years ago their computers couldn't be configured to "give me all returns claiming EITC using the same prison for the mailing address."

[RitaB]

Truth

I once dealt with an officer named Duncan. I felt bad for him.

LMBO

I agree it should be simple to do a sort like this, but we learned a couple of years ago their computers couldn't be configured to "give me all returns claiming EITC using the same prison for the mailing address."

Yeah, I don't see a lot of effort going into the process, either. Well, it seems they are working hard at making US work harder...