Daycare Meals - Canada Revenue

[Suzie_Homemaker]

Dear Daycare Owners,

CRA has started to audit the cost of daycare meals. My client has been audited and it is CRA's view that the cost of meals (breakfast, lunch and 2 snacks) should be no more than $3.08 all age groups. They got their information from "Consumer Trends Report, Chapter 9: Consumer Spending , Office of Consumer Affairs -9.5 Consumer Spending on Food, the average weekly cost of the Nutritious Food Basket for a family of 4 in Edmonton. It is reported that the average spending was $132.10 in 2002.Due to inflation the $132.10 would be equal to $161.13 in 2013. CRA estimates that adults eat twice as much as children so that 2 children would be equal to 1 adult.
Family of 4 equals $161.13 weekly; divide weekly amount by 3 to determine amount for 2 children equals $53.94 and for 1 child weekly equals $26.97. Daily cost per child would be $3.85. Since all kids don't eat everything CRA concluded a reasonable amount would be $3.08 per day (4/5*3.85). The number I used for my daycare clients in 2013 was $5.22.What do you allocate per child per day for meals?

I'm not buying this information either.

First, it's a strange post for a new poster.
Second, the cost of food is drastically different across the provinces. Some have milk subsidized, others do not.
Third, who care if we are audited. We have receipts for our expenses and can prove them. The meal costs aren't capped - they are based on actual expense with the evidence of a receipt, like all business costs are.
$161.13 doesn't even pay for a few basic items here.
Fourth, if CRA are focusing on the meal claims of dayhomes, then most provider's will be okay. I know some here use a daily amount to claim but my accountant and the CRA website has always explained that receipts are required and there's no ability to take a daily amount x # of children. As long as a provider has followed the CRA rules for what can be claimed, all this is doing is unnecessarily worrying some people.

[totalbest]

I do not think those also cost $3 or so.