Article
Meals and Entertainment Deductions: 100%, 50%, or 0%
Meals and entertainment deductions changed significantly for 2026. This covers what's 100%, 50%, or newly 0% deductible, plus the documentation you need either way.
LedgerGurus expert
Lauren Maillard
Director of Service Delivery
Finds and fixes income and sales tax errors that build up over years
About Lauren
Lauren Maillard, CPA, is the Director of Service Delivery at LedgerGurus and holds a Master's in Taxation. Lauren helps ecommerce owners fix the tax gaps that build up during fast growth, like S-corp elections set up wrong, skipped reasonable compensation, and missed state filings.
In one case, Lauren corrected a client's payroll filings, amended multiple years of income tax returns, and worked with the IRS on penalty relief after a previous accountant's errors. Lauren covers both income and sales tax, from entity structure to marketplace facilitator compliance across Shopify, Amazon, and other channels. Outside work, Lauren has swum with sharks, gone skydiving, and lived and worked in five countries.
Get to know Lauren
- What do you specifically know that most accountants don't?
When you're building an ecommerce business, compliance is rarely the priority, growth is. That means S-corp elections get set up incorrectly, reasonable compensation gets skipped, and income tax filing obligations don't keep pace as the business expands into new states.
These gaps sit quietly for years until an IRS notice, state audit, or business transition forces them into the open. Having your bookkeeping and income tax work handled in the same place matters, problems get caught early, not years later when they've already cost you money.
- What's one type of client situation you've handled that you're proud of?
I worked with a business owner whose previous accountant had mishandled their S-corp reporting. Payroll requirements had been missed, filing errors had carried through multiple years income tax returns, and penalties had quietly accumulated. We corrected the payroll filings, amended the returns, and worked directly with the IRS on penalty relief to get everything back on solid footing.
- What specific topic areas do you consider your wheelhouse?
My wheelhouse covers income and sales tax compliance, business and personal returns, entity structure decisions during periods of growth, and correcting prior-year tax filing errors. On the ecommerce side, I focus on sales tax nexus analysis for growing businesses and marketplace facilitator compliance across Shopify, Amazon, and other sales channels.
- What makes you an interesting/quirky/fun person?
People don't usually expect this from someone with a Master's in Taxation, but I've swum with sharks, gone skydiving, hitchhiked through France, and lived and worked in five countries. These days the adventures are smaller — a good K-drama, chasing my kids around the house, or planning the next trip.
Areas of expertise
- Income and sales tax compliance
- Business and personal tax returns
- Entity structure for growing businesses
- S-corp elections and reasonable compensation
- Prior-year tax filing corrections
- IRS penalty relief
- Sales tax nexus analysis
- Marketplace facilitator compliance
Published content
Articles
Podcasts
PodcastEcommerce Tax Strategy: The Big Beautiful Bill Just Changed the Game!
The big beautiful bill changed what ecommerce sellers can write off and when. Lauren Maillard walks Stephen Brown through bonus depreciation and why it helps with a forklift but not a warehouse, full expensing for research and development, the 20% qualified business income deduction, and the new deductions on overtime and car loan interest. She also explains why your books and your tax return can legitimately disagree, and why social media tax advice fails IRS scrutiny.
PodcastEcommerce in 2025: Mid-Year Lessons, Surprises, and Smart Moves
Six months on from the ten predictions in episode one, Stephen Brown and Lauren Maillard check the scoreboard. Tariffs landed harder than anyone expected, the de minimis rule is gone with a global phase-out by 2027, and the dollar is weakening on top of it all. The surprise nobody predicted is that AI stopped being a cost-saving tool and became a sales channel. Stephen also explains the four month gap between episodes.
Webinars
Webinar · On demandThe Ecommerce KPIs That Actually Matter
No slides. Stephen Brown opens the dashboard. LedgerGurus gives its monthly accounting clients and walks the six metrics on it, using data from the brand he co-owns. What each benchmark is, where it came from, and what a spike actually means: an inventory adjustment, a tariff, a Black Friday that crossed into December. Then payroll, interest, contribution margin, and the cash conversion cycle.
Webinar · On demandPlanning for 2026 with 10 Ecommerce Finance Predictions
Ten calls for the year ahead, delivered in 25 minutes. Stephen Brown argues tariffs have peaked, interest rates split into winners and losers depending on what your debt is tied to, and inflation stays sticky enough that annual price reviews are now table stakes. His most bullish call is AI: shopping, checkout, and eventually advertising. Lauren Maillard covers the tax provisions worth planning around.
Webinar · On demandA Smart Approach to Cutting Costs
A 30% tariff turns a $400,000 profit into $178,000 before you do anything about it. Stephen Brown runs the Tariff Impact Calculator live, then lays out target ranges for every major cost category and works through where to cut. Discretionary spending goes first, payroll gets the three O's treatment, and the contribution margin triad of COGS, fulfillment, and advertising takes longer but moves the most.
Webinar · On demandHow Tariffs are Impacting Your Profits
A month after the global tariff announcement, most of the world sits at a 10% pause and China does not. Stephen Brown runs the numbers on what a 145% tariff does to an efficient brand, then works through the decisions in front of sellers: hold the order, use a bonded warehouse, or import at a loss. He covers how to game plan the rest of the world by trade balance, and how to spread the cost across manufacturers, customers, and wholesale prices.
Webinar · On demandSales Tax 101 with Avalara
Forty-five states rely on sales tax as their single biggest revenue stream, which is why they keep hiring auditors and lowering thresholds. Christopher and Kevin from Avalara walk through the five steps of compliance, from working out where you have nexus to remitting the returns. Along the way: why New York taxes tacos but not burritos, why one neighbour gets all the packages, and what a VDA does to a Texas look-back period.
Webinar · On demandCompliance Counts: Why Your Business Cannot Afford to Ignore Sales Tax
Six years after Wayfair, the grace period is over. States are buying seller lists, pulling data from marketplaces, and auditing back to 2018. Lauren Maillard walks through the business activity questionnaires arriving from Illinois and Washington, the two ways to get compliant, and how to decide between them. Stephen Brown fields a heavy stream of audience questions on nexus, drop shipping, exemption certificates, and the new retail delivery fees.
Services Lauren works with
Meet more experts
Brittany BrownChief Executive Officer
Stephen BrownChief Operating Officer
Anna YoungDirector of Learning and Initiatives