"It is clearing my liability account, however I am also reporting income for the meal that was "purchased" with a GC that I donated and did not receive income for."
You never had a Real Expense, without creating phony income, in the first place. You Donated the GC, and that means there is Nothing to write off as expense unless you Pretend to have Sold it. That's item 1. Second, you "sold" a meal with 100% discount, by the use of the GC. That is Another Wash.
What you Only Have is the cost of Food and payroll labor. All the rest is you, trying to create something out of nothing. You don't get to write off Lost Profit. At most, you list Gross Income and Gross 100% discount.
No matter how much stuff you enter, you never had Income at all. You would have income if you Sell GC. Income = Liability, and later, the meal still is 100% Discounted by applying the liability.
Does that help?
