According to the relevant regulations, input tax in the following cases cannot be deducted from output tax:

1. Purchased goods or taxable labor services used for non-VAT taxable items, VAT-exempted items, collective welfare or personal consumption;

2. Purchased goods and related taxable labor services with abnormal losses;

3. Purchased goods or taxable labor services consumed by the products in process and finished goods with abnormal losses;

4. Purchased goods or taxable labor services consumed;

4. Consumer goods for the taxpayer's own use as stipulated by the competent authorities of the State Council in charge of finance and taxation;

5. Corresponding transportation costs of goods and transportation costs for the sale of tax-exempted goods.

According to the above provisions, meals are regarded as a form of personal consumption, so enterprises cannot use special VAT invoices for input tax deduction when purchasing meals. However, enterprises can use ordinary VAT invoices for input tax deduction.

In summary, according to the regulations, input tax in specific cases cannot be deducted from output tax. In the case of meals, companies cannot use VAT invoices for input tax deduction, but they can use ordinary VAT invoices.

Is the input tax paid by the buyer or the seller?

According to the national tax policy, input tax refers to the amount of VAT contained in the VAT invoice that the buyer enterprise pays to the supplier when purchasing goods or services. The purchaser enterprise needs to bear the input tax amount by itself and can offset it by offsetting the output tax amount issued by the seller enterprise. In other words, the purchaser business needs to pay the input tax itself and it is not paid by the seller business.

In summary, according to the tax policy, the buyer company needs to bear the input tax itself, and can reduce the tax liability by offsetting the output tax. This means that the input tax is borne by the purchasing company and not paid by the selling company.