Family Daycare in Your Home: Meal Rates and the Home Use Rules
Published November 7, 2026
Publication 587 (2025), Business Use of Your Home (Including Use by Daycare Providers), covers two topics for people who run a daycare from their home. It explains the deduction for the business use of a home. It also explains the standard meal and snack rates for family daycare providers. This guide summarizes both parts. It is general information. It is not advice about your case.
Two separate deductions
A home daycare provider can have two kinds of deductions. The first is the business use of the home. That covers the part of your home costs that matches the space used for the business. The second is the cost of food served to the children. The publication says to claim the food cost as a separate deduction on Schedule C (Form 1040). It is not a cost of using your home.
The daycare exception to exclusive use
Most home business space must be used only for the business. That is the exclusive use test. The publication makes an exception for daycare. You can qualify even if you also use the same space for personal purposes. Two things must be true. First, you must be in the trade or business of providing daycare for children, persons age 65 or older, or persons who cannot care for themselves. Second, you must have applied for, been granted, or be exempt from a license, certification, registration, or approval under state law as a daycare center or a family or group daycare home. A rejected application, or a revoked license, does not meet this test.
Regular use and the percentage
If you use part of your home for daycare regularly, but not exclusively, you must figure the percentage of time that part is used for daycare. A room that is available all day and that you regularly use for the business counts as used for daycare throughout each business day. A room you use only occasionally for business does not qualify.
If you use the simplified method, the publication lists a prescribed rate of up to $5 per square foot. If the space is not used only for daycare, you reduce that rate using hours of use. The publication says you do not need to reduce the rate if you used at least 300 sq. ft. for daycare regularly and exclusively during the year.
Standard meal and snack rates
Instead of your actual food costs, a family daycare provider can use the standard meal and snack rates. The care must be family daycare. That means nonmedical care for eligible children in the provider's home, with no transfer of legal custody, and generally for less than 24 hours a day. Eligible children are minor children who receive family daycare in the home. Children who live in the home, and children whose parents live in the home, are not eligible. Neither are children you care for as a favor to a relative.
You can use the rates for at most one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner, and three snacks per eligible child per day. If you receive a reimbursement for a meal or snack, you can deduct only the part of the standard rate that is more than that reimbursement. The rates include beverages. They do not include paper products, containers, or utensils. Those can be deducted separately.
For 2025, Table 3 of the publication lists these amounts per meal or snack:
- States and territories other than Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands: breakfast $1.66, lunch $3.15, dinner $3.15, snack $0.93.
- Alaska: breakfast $2.66, lunch $5.10, dinner $5.10, snack $1.52.
- Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands: breakfast $2.14, lunch $4.09, dinner $4.09, snack $1.22.
The publication says the 2025 rates are the Child and Adult Care Food Program reimbursement rates in effect on December 31, 2024. You choose a method for each tax year. You can use the standard rates in one year and actual costs in another. If you use the standard rates, keep records. The records should show each child's name, the dates and hours of attendance, and the type and number of meals and snacks served. The publication includes a sample log in Exhibit A.
Program reimbursements
If a sponsor under the Child and Adult Care Food Program pays you, those payments are taxable only to the extent they are more than your food expenses for eligible children. The publication says to follow this rule even if you receive a Form 1099-MISC for the payment.
What to do next
Write down the days and hours the daycare runs, and the square footage used for it. If you use the standard rates, keep a log of meals and snacks for each child. If you use actual costs, keep receipts and keep your family's food costs separate. Then compare the two methods for the year. For the basics of the business form, see Schedule C: Business Income and Expenses Basics. For the home office rules that apply to other trades, see Home Office Deduction for the Self-Employed. A credit for paying someone to care for a child so you can work is a different benefit. See Child and Dependent Care Credit Basics.
Sources: Sources: IRS, Publication 587 (2025), Business Use of Your Home (Including Use by Daycare Providers) (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p587.pdf) This is general information, not advice about your specific return.
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