Few questions about food and taxes

[venusrockstar]

If I am charging myself an expense that is a flat rate for food rather than going through my grocery bill, do I need to keep my grocery receipts for taxes?

What is a reasonable flat rate to charge myself for an expense? I was thinking for 1 full-time child $5/day....is this too expensive?

[mimi]

Yes, you should keep any receipt that pertains to your business. I am one of the ones that goes through my grocery bill and itemizes what the daycare uses. After doing my taxes I fiqured I spent about 10.00 a day on food for 5 f/t kiddies.

[torontokids]

only $10 total a day for all 5 kids?

[Artsand crafts]

Yes, you should keep any receipt that pertains to your business. I am one of the ones that goes through my grocery bill and itemizes what the daycare uses. After doing my taxes I fiqured I spent about 10.00 a day on food for 5 f/t kiddies.

Is that a typo Mimi? I spend between $4 to $7 per kid. If not, I'm curios what do you do to keep your costs that low?

[DaycareLady]

I am doing flat rate for next tax year and calculating $6 a day per child. I am keeping all my receipts and if I get audited...I figure they can add it all up and calculate it all themselves lol.

[JennJubie]

Is that a typo Mimi? I spend between $4 to $7 per kid. If not, I'm curios what do you do to keep your costs that low?

This is what I figure my food costs per child are.

[playfelt]

Age of child makes a huge difference. A cup of veggies feeds several infants/toddlers but only a couple of preschoolers and up. Also if parents provide for the infants in care then the money is really being spent on the other 3 for the most part and just snacks for the infants. Mom continuing to send homo milk makes a huge difference in cost of milk served.

[mimi]

I buy dry goods in bulk, shop the sales (I have a big freezer) and most everything I serve is home made so I save alot that way. My meals are simple and nutricious with lots of fruit and veggies mixed in.

This does not include craft supplies, tissues, cleaning products etc.

[bright sparks]

My food expenses equal to an average of $8 per child throughout the year. i buy grains in bulk and meat in bulk all organic, no refined carbs so more expensive and my meat is abf or organic. I do not buy frozen or tinned veg only fresh veg and fruit and make all baked goods from scratch. I cook in advance and do not make my menus up weekly based on sale items in the flyers as I find that the amount of actual "healthy" food in the flyers is limited. I know my expenses for food are likely higher than average, but i charge more for this, parents send there children to me because of this and I write it all off. I dont understand why you write of a flat rate. If you get auditted you will have either paid to much tax or not enough. The cra are not looking for a rough estimate of this expense but the actual cost incurred for the years food. I know it may seem easier but really it could bite you in the ass later on down the road. Just write off what it costs. Some meals are way more expensive than others so its not effective or accurate to just "guesstimate"

[SongSparrow]

I think it actually would be fine to make an estimate as long as you know you are within reason. If you have a set up where you buy groceries separately, store them separately, cook separately from your family then it would be easy to calculate an exact cost on your tax return. If you don't then it would be very time consuming to come up with exactly how much you spent. For me, my time is worth more than a bit of extra money I may be able to claim, so I make an estimate that I know is reasonable.
The CRA says this:
"Other reasonable expenses
It is often difficult, for example, to separate the cost of feeding your own children from the cost of feeding children in your daycare program when groceries are bought together or if your
own laundry is done at the same time as laundry used during the course of business.
As long as the expense claimed associated with these daycare related activities is reasonable, it will be allowed."