CRA meal allowance rates: $23 a meal, $69 a day for 2025 claims

Which CRA meal rate applies to your client?

There isn't one CRA meal allowance rate. There's a flat $23 that shows up in several places, a reasonableness test for employer allowances, and a separate per diem the CRA pays its own staff. The 2025 rate for individuals is $23 per meal, to a maximum of $69 a day per person, sales tax included, with no receipts canada.ca.

The $23 dates from a 2020 change that raised the flat rate from $17 for the simplified method and for overtime meals, retroactive to January 1, 2020 canada.ca. It hasn't moved since. The CRA had posted the 2025 rate as of October 2026, but not a 2026 one.

The simplified method pays $69 a day per person, with no receipts

For moving expenses, medical travel and the northern residents travel deduction, your client chooses the detailed method (actual costs, keep the receipts) or the simplified method (flat rates, no detailed receipts) canada.ca. The CRA can still ask for some documentation to support the claim.

Worked example: a couple moves from Calgary to Halifax in 2025 with two children and spends four days on the road. The simplified meal claim is 4 people x 4 days x $69 = $1,104. If a day had only breakfast and lunch on the road, that person gets 2 x $23 = $46 for the day, not $69.

Vehicle costs work the same way: multiply the kilometres by the cents per km rate for the province or territory where the trip began canada.ca. These are not the rates an employer uses for a car allowance; those are on the automobile allowance page.

On the same move, 4,800 km starting in Alberta gives 4,800 x $0.565 = $2,712 of vehicle expenses under the simplified method.

When an employer meal allowance stays off the T4

For overtime, a meal or meal allowance isn't taxable when all three conditions hold: the amount is reasonable, generally up to $23 including taxes; the employee works two or more hours of overtime right before or after the shift; and the overtime is occasional, generally fewer than three times a week canada.ca. The CRA accepts a higher amount where meals cost more in that location or there are other significant extenuating circumstances.

For out of town travel there is no number. Subparagraph 6(1)(b)(vii) excludes reasonable travel allowances (other than car allowances) for travel away from the municipality and metropolitan area of the establishment where the employee ordinarily reports laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. The CRA tells employers to weigh all the facts of the employee's situation and to compare the costs they'd expect the employee to incur against the allowance paid canada.ca. An allowance that isn't reasonable is taxable in full.

Local travel inside the municipality is administrative policy, not the Act. A meal allowance for an employee who works away from the office during a shift is generally reasonable up to $23 including taxes, if the allowance helps the employee do the job, the employer is the main beneficiary and the payment isn't disguised pay canada.ca.

When an allowance fails a test, cash goes in boxes 14, 24 and 26 with code 40, so income tax, CPP and EI all apply. A meal provided in kind skips box 24 and EI canada.ca.

Long haul truck drivers deduct 80% of meals, other transport employees 50%

Employees of an airline, railway, bus or trucking company who regularly travel away from their home terminal claim meals and lodging on Form TL2 and line 22900. The simplified method is $23 per meal including sales tax, up to three meals a day, or US$23 per meal in the United States canada.ca. Meals are 50% deductible, except for long haul truck drivers on eligible trips, who deduct 80% for 2025.

The 80% comes from subsection 67.1(1.1) of the Act. An eligible travel period is at least 24 continuous hours away from home, driving a truck that hauls goods beyond a 160 km radius laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. The truck must be designed to haul freight with a gross vehicle weight rating over 11,788 kg canada.ca.

That $10,396 is before the employer allowance. Your client reduces the claim by any tax free allowance or reimbursement received or receivable, and the employer must sign the TL2 canada.ca.

Why the search results show $123.20 a day

The CRA rate tables that rank for this search come from its internal Directive on Travel, whose Appendix B sets the meal allowances. That directive applies to CRA employees and others bound by CRA policy, and its rates follow the National Joint Council canada.ca. It is a staff policy, not a tax rule for your clients.

These are the October 1, 2026 rates canada.ca. In April 2026 the provincial meal total was $121.25 canada.ca. The directive cuts meals and incidentals to 75% from the 31st day at one location and meals to 50% from the 121st day. A client can still use these numbers to support that an allowance is reasonable, but the CRA has not published them as an accepted employer rate.

Three rules that sink a meal claim

The 12 hour rule. An employee claiming meals under paragraphs 8(1)(f) or 8(1)(h) needs to be away at least 12 hours from the municipality and metropolitan area of the employer's establishment laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. Transport employees claim under 8(1)(g), which that rule doesn't cover.

Sole proprietors don't get the $23 flat rate for business meals. They deduct 50% of the lesser of the actual cost and a reasonable amount on line 8523; only foot couriers, bicycle couriers and rickshaw drivers get a $23 daily flat rate canada.ca. See the meals and entertainment page for the 50% rule.

Allowance plus reimbursement. Paying a car allowance and also reimbursing costs for the same use makes the allowance unreasonable under 6(1)(b)(xi) laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. For northern residents, the travel deduction has its own limits on the northern residents deduction page.