A meal allowance claim can only be claimed if the taxpayer receives a meal allowance from the employer. Allowances must be included in the assessable income. If a meal allowance is incorporated into salary under a workplace agreement and the allowance forms part of salary, no deduction is allowable.

Expenses incurred for food or drink can be claimed without evidence if

• An overtime meal allowance has been paid
• It gives the employee an allowance to buy food or drink in connection with overtime
• It is paid or payable under Commonwealth, State or Territory law (reasonable amount – see below), and
• The total of the claim is considered reasonable by the Tax office.

Reasonable amount

• The reasonable amount for overtime meal expenses in the 2024–25 income year is $37.65.
• The reasonable amounts are published each income year. See TD 2024/3 Income tax: what are the reasonable travel and overtime meal allowance expense amounts for the 2024–25 income year?
• The reasonable amount is not an amount you can automatically claim as a deduction. You can still only claim a deduction for the deductible overtime meal expenses you actually incur.

If your expenses are above the reasonable amount

If your overtime meal expenses are more than the reasonable amount, you can either:

• claim the amount you spent and keep written evidence of your whole claim (it’s not sufficient to only have records for the expenses above the reasonable amount)
• claim only the reasonable amount and keep fewer records.