Personally, I find the easiest way to do this is to count all the monies paid to me as income (input). Then I count all the actual costs to me, such as the meal I had to purchase, as expenses (output). That is, direct costs to perform the shop, not additional overhead expenses.
If you're reimbursed for a meal, then this comes out "in the wash." For example, one restaurant shop I do pays a flat $25 fee, but the meal has to be purchased out of that fee. For taxes I count $25 as income, and the $10 or so for the meal as an expense. That leaves me with a gross taxable income (before mileage and other expenses) of $15.
Because the methods MSCs use to pay, itemize, and report via 1099s vary so much, I find this method much simpler than figuring out for each individual shop what your profit is and factoring that into your income from MS. It all works out the same. Even if your figures per MSC don't match their 1099s, you don't report your income by MSC. As long as your records are meticulous, this should work.
As others have said, meals necessary to do a shop aren't the same as meals eaten while traveling for business. They fall into two different categories.
Above all, though, my feeling is that anyone who has self-employment income really should have his or her taxes done by a professional tax preparer, unless he or she has a background in tax prep or tax accounting. Or at least have one you can ask questions of.
(Edited for grammar and punctuation, not content.)
I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/19/2016 05:38PM by BirdyC.