For the year 2017, the exemption limit for meal’ compensations to self-employed is fixed in 13,65 €.
When a self-employed person with a commercial or industrial activity is not able to come back home for lunch, and in function of the distance between his workplace and his home, the French Administration recognizes that the meals’ additional costs (i.e. the costs resulted as the exceed value of his meals) are deductible on taxable result (if this cost are not exaggerated).
In 2017, the home made meals’ flat-rate value for is fixed on 4,75 € VAT included (4,70 € in 2016) and the threshold is fixed on 18,40 € VAT included (18,30 € in 2016).
The maximum deduction is therefore 13,65 €. Beyond this amount, deduction is possible if the self-employed person can justify exceptional circumstances linked with his activity and catering’s possibilities near his workplace.
For the record: the same rule applies for self-employed persons with no commercial or industrial activities, like doctors, architects…