M&IE stands for meals and incidental expenses, a daily allowance that covers food and small travel-related costs when you’re away from home on business. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) sets standard M&IE rates for domestic travel, and these rates are used by federal agencies, private employers, and self-employed individuals to reimburse or deduct everyday spending during a trip without tracking individual receipts.
What M&IE Covers
The “meals” portion is straightforward: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The “incidental expenses” portion covers tips to hotel staff such as bellhops and housekeepers, along with other small costs tied to lodging and meals. M&IE does not cover transportation, lodging, or larger business expenses. Those fall under separate categories in the federal per diem system.
The GSA splits the total M&IE allowance into specific percentages for each meal. Breakfast accounts for 15% of the daily rate, lunch for 25%, and dinner for 40%. The remaining 20% covers incidental expenses. These percentages matter when a meal is already provided to you, such as a lunch included in a conference registration fee. In that case, you’re expected to subtract the corresponding meal amount from your daily allowance. However, complimentary meals from a hotel or meals served on a flight don’t reduce your M&IE. Those are treated as freebies that don’t affect your per diem.
How the Rates Are Set
The GSA publishes M&IE rates as part of the broader per diem system, which also includes a separate lodging allowance. Rates vary by location. Most places in the continental United States fall under the standard (CONUS) rate, while higher-cost cities and counties get elevated rates to reflect more expensive restaurants and services. The GSA updates these rates annually, with the new fiscal year rates typically taking effect each October 1.
For travel outside the continental U.S., including Alaska, Hawaii, and foreign countries, the Department of Defense and the Department of State publish separate per diem schedules. The structure works the same way, but the dollar amounts reflect local costs in each destination.
The 75% Rule for Travel Days
You don’t always receive the full daily M&IE rate. On the first and last calendar days of a trip lasting 24 hours or more, you receive 75% of the applicable rate. Full days of travel in between are reimbursed at 100%. So if your destination’s M&IE rate is $69 per day, your first and last days would each be worth about $52.
For shorter trips lasting more than 12 hours but less than 24, the same 75% rate applies for each calendar day you’re in travel status. Trips under 12 hours generally don’t qualify for M&IE reimbursement at all under federal rules, though private employers can set their own policies.
How Private Employers Use M&IE
While M&IE rates are a federal standard, many private companies adopt them as their own reimbursement policy. Using the GSA rates gives employers a simple, defensible framework: instead of reviewing stacks of restaurant receipts, they pay employees a flat daily amount based on the travel destination. Employees don’t need to save receipts for every coffee and sandwich, and accounting departments avoid the hassle of auditing individual meal charges.
Employers aren’t required to follow GSA rates. Some companies set their own daily meal allowances, pay actual expenses with receipts, or use a hybrid approach. But pegging reimbursements to the GSA schedule is common because those amounts are recognized by the IRS as reasonable, which simplifies tax reporting for both the company and the employee.
M&IE and Tax Deductions
If you’re self-employed or your employer doesn’t reimburse your travel meals, M&IE rates can simplify your tax return. The IRS allows you to use the standard meal allowance instead of tracking and deducting actual meal costs. You choose the GSA rate for your travel destination and use that figure rather than totaling up individual receipts.
There’s one important limitation: the deduction for business meals is generally limited to 50% of the cost. So if the M&IE rate for your destination is $69 per day and you travel for three full days, your total allowance would be $207, but you could only deduct $103.50 on your tax return. You still need to keep records showing the dates, destinations, and business purpose of your trips, even though you’re not required to document each individual meal.
How to Look Up Your Rate
The GSA website (gsa.gov) has a per diem lookup tool where you enter your travel destination and dates. It returns both the lodging rate and the M&IE rate for that location. The site also provides a breakdown table showing exactly how the M&IE amount splits across breakfast, lunch, dinner, and incidentals, which is useful when you need to subtract a furnished meal.
For rates above $265 per day (which applies to the most expensive domestic destinations), the GSA uses the same percentage formula: 15% for breakfast, 25% for lunch, 40% for dinner, and the remainder for incidentals. This keeps the system consistent regardless of the rate tier.
If you’re traveling internationally, look up rates through the Department of State’s Office of Allowances rather than the GSA site. The structure is similar, but the rates reflect foreign cost-of-living data and are updated on a different schedule.