Self-published authors like their cups of coffee. They should learn to like the tax laws surrounding when it is tax deductible while drinking it.
As far as offing it to visiting clients, you should be good to deduct 50% of that expense.
📘 Relevant IRS Source:
IRS Publication 463: Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
Link to Pub 463 (IRS.gov)
🔍 Specific Sections:
1. Meals and Entertainment (Client-related)
From Publication 463 (2023):
“You can deduct 50% of business meal expenses if the meal is an ordinary and necessary expense in carrying on your trade or business and… you or an employee of your business is present, and the meal is provided to a current or potential business customer, client, consultant, or similar business contact.”
This includes the cost of food and beverages, including tips and sales tax.
Coffee offered to a visiting client would fall into this category.
Even your own Cup? Or just your Client’s Cup?
Consume away.
Yes — generally, if you’re having coffee with a visiting client in a business setting (like your office or a café), 50% of the total cost is deductible, including your own portion.
Here’s the IRS logic:
Under IRC §274(n) and related guidance (including IRS Publication 463 and Notice 2018-76), meals and beverages provided during a business discussion with a client are 50% deductible, even if you’re consuming part of it.
✅ Example: You buy two coffees for $10 total — one for yourself, one for your client. You can generally deduct $5 (50%) of the total cost as a business expense.
The deduction doesn’t break down per cup, but rather applies to the total business meal/beverage cost incurred in the meeting.
✅ TL;DR:
- Coffee served to a client at your place of business is a 50% deductible business meal expense (Pub 463).
- Be sure the setting is business-related, you (or an employee) are present, and it’s not lavish or extravagant.
- Keep records showing the purpose and guest.
What about coffee served at a cafe that you are having with your client?
Yes — coffee paid for at a café with a client is also 50% deductible, assuming certain business-related conditions are met.
✅ Whether in-office or at a café:
The location doesn’t matter as much as the purpose. According to IRS Publication 463 and IRS Notice 2018-76, the key factors that determine whether you can deduct 50% of the coffee expense are:
- Business purpose — It must be directly related to the active conduct of your trade or business.
- Presence — You or an employee must be present.
- Client/Customer — The coffee must be provided to a current or prospective business contact (client, customer, consultant, etc.).
- Not lavish or extravagant — Reasonableness is required.
📌 Example:
You meet a client at a local café, buy two coffees for $12 total.
- ✅ You can deduct $6 (50%) as a business meal expense.
- The deduction applies to the full bill (not just the client’s coffee), as long as it’s during a business discussion.
📝 Source Again:
From IRS Notice 2018-76:
“The Treasury Department and the IRS believe that taxpayers may continue to deduct 50 percent of an otherwise allowable business meal expense if:
- The expense is an ordinary and necessary expense,
- The taxpayer (or an employee) is present,
- The food or beverages are provided to a business associate,
- The food and beverages are not lavish or extravagant under the circumstances.”
What about people you have coffee with to conduct research for your writing?
People you meet with for research—such as for a novel, screenplay, blog, or nonfiction book—can potentially qualify as business associates for deduction purposes, but with a few caveats.
✅ IRS Rule Framework:
The IRS generally allows 50% deduction of business meals if:
- There’s a clear business purpose (research for a paid writing project counts),
- You (the taxpayer) are present,
- The meal isn’t lavish or extravagant, and
- The food/beverage is provided to a business associate.
📚 So — Are Research Subjects “Business Associates”?
They can be, if you are interviewing or meeting them as part of a bona fide business project — such as:
- A nonfiction book you plan to sell
- A screenplay you’re pitching or producing
- A novel based on real people or places
- A blog or podcast episode you’ll monetize
- An article you’re submitting for payment
In this context, interviewees or sources are considered part of your writing business — and your meeting with them is a business activity. That makes them eligible business associates under IRS Notice 2018-76.
✅ Example:
You’re writing a novel featuring a character who’s a paramedic, so you buy coffee for a local EMT and ask questions about their work.
If this meeting is in service of your for-profit writing project, you can generally deduct 50% of the coffee as a business meal.
What is you meet that paramedic to inform character creation in a fictional world on another planet?
That still counts as a legitimate business meeting for tax purposes — as long as it supports a writing project you intend to monetize (book, screenplay, etc.).
🔍 Here’s how the IRS would likely view it:
Fictional content doesn’t disqualify the meeting. What matters is:
- You’re in the trade or business of writing for income
(self-published author, screenwriter, blogger, etc.) - The meeting has a clear business-related purpose
(e.g., learning about emergency medical procedures to improve the realism of your work) - You are present, and the setting is not lavish or extravagant
In this case, the paramedic is a research source, which qualifies them as a business associate under IRS Notice 2018-76.
📝 Example for Your Records:
“Met with Alex D., paramedic at [Hospital Name], on 8/1/25 to discuss trauma response protocols. Research for character in sci-fi novel Solar Breach. Book will be released through [Platform] in November 2025.”
✅ Bottom Line:
Whether your character is saving lives on Mars or just the local subway, if you’re learning from a real person to enhance your sellable writing, that coffee meeting can generally be 50% tax deductible as a business meal.
⚠️ Caution:
- Keep good records: who you met, when, and how it relates to your writing project.
- Make sure the project is tied to actual or expected income (a hobby blog doesn’t count).
- This falls under the “ordinary and necessary” business expense rule — it’s not enough to just chat about your book; the meeting should serve a real business purpose.
Need more notes from the Self-publishing field guide?
David O’Boyle, Esq. write all sorts of stories. He also occasionally gets stuck in the muck and mire of tax law. When he does, he tries to share it with other self-published authors who could benefit from his findings.
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