What are the IRS rules for deducting Meals and Lodging expenses that involve Foreign Travel of less than 1 week.

I made some overseas trips and incurred meals and entertainment and spent some personal time of about 1 out 7 days for sight-seeing in Rome!

How should I allocate the meals and lodging expenses between business and personal purposes? Thanks for your help..

The IRS has held the position that in general, any meals and lodging expenses incurred in connection with business that involves foreign travel, "an allocation is required between the time spent for business and time spent for personal pleasure."

However, as with all rules, there are exceptions involving foreign travel of less than 1 week and where the amount of personal time for pleasure is less than 25% of the total time spent away from home, no allocation is required, and the total expenses incurred on the foreign travel are deductible.

This is per IRS Code Sec. 274(c)2.

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