It's tax time.

i know a few years ago they (the irs) was offering the partial day meal and incidental expense (M&IE) allowance---you left on a trip at say, 5pm and didn't come home that night. So, in this case you could take 1/2 the standard meal and expense allowance.

The definition for "being away from home" is described in publication 463, page 3:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p463.pdf


And the standard rate, instead of using actual expenses(although i'm not really worried about that now) is described in form 2106EZ page 3, in the right hand column:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f2106ez.pdf

Do you know if there is an allowance this year or next for the partial day meal and expense (M&IE) allowance? i'm pretty sure there was 3 or 4 years ago, and you could take half the half the standard allowance.