Conservatives often point out that our corporate tax rates are the second highest in the world. However what they omit is the large amount of deductions and loopholes in the government, the IRS itself concludes that a quarter of corporations in the US don’t pay any corporate taxes at all. In effect even though the tax rate is lower in Ireland corporations pay more due to fewer deductions. Also European countries afford lower corporate tax rates by having MUCH higher taxes on income as well as employer funded entitlements. So are conservatives just misinformed that is it is cheaper to do business in Germany, or are they cherry picking the facts to starve the federal government yet again(by cleverly omitting the other taxes in Europe) and skirt the federal guidelines that are tied to the deductions?

I’m an employee of a private employment agency in the US and I was sent to Europe for five weeks of work at a foreign firm. My airfare and housing was paid directly by the US agency. I was paid directly to my NY bank. I paid for all my own meals and other expenses but I received in cash 0 a week from the foreign firm (which did not cover my meal expenses).
From my reading of IRS Publication 463, the meal cost is deductible but it seems I don’t have to use my actual receipts or memory and can use the Fed per diem rate. But that rate is 0 A DAY!
Does that mean I can deduct 00 for my 40 days there? That seems insane and doesn’t include laundry, taxis, telephone, etc.
I’m a little nervous to put this down.
I’ll add a sub-question: 2 weeks into the 6 week assignment I flew back to my tax-home for 1.5 days for a family wedding. I went right back to work the next day. Is the airfare deductible as a travel expense?