Guide
What deductions can you claim without receipts?
Fewer than most articles imply. For US federal tax, expenses under $75 other than lodging do not require documentary evidence in the first place, and ordinary business costs can sometimes be supported by other records — invoices, cancelled cheques, statements paired with what you bought. But travel, meals away from home, business gifts and listed property such as vehicles are governed by section 274(d), which bars estimation outright. No receipt and no substitute record means no deduction, however reasonable the estimate.
The category where estimates are simply not allowed
Section 274(d) imposes strict substantiation on travel, meals and lodging away from home, business gifts, and listed property such as passenger vehicles. The temporary regulations state that this limitation supersedes the Cohan doctrine of close approximation, and that no deduction is allowed on the basis of approximations or unsupported testimony. For these four, missing records are a complete bar, not a discount.
Substantiation here means four elements: the amount, the time and place, the business purpose, and — for gifts and entertainment-adjacent items — the business relationship of the person who benefited. This is the category most "deduct without receipts" advice quietly ignores, and it is also the category people most often try to reconstruct at the end of the year. Reconstructing it after the fact is exactly what the rule was written to stop.
The $75 rule is not a licence to keep nothing
26 CFR 1.274-5 requires documentary evidence for any lodging expenditure while travelling away from home, and for any other expenditure of $75 or more. Below $75 and outside lodging, a receipt is not required — but the record of the four elements still is. You are excused the paper, not the bookkeeping.
This distinction is the single most misread rule in the area. "No receipt needed under $75" is true; "nothing needed under $75" is not. A written log made at the time, showing what you spent, when, where and why, is what carries a sub-$75 expense. If you were going to write that down anyway, photographing the slip is the cheaper version of the same work.
What can carry an ordinary expense when the slip is gone
For expenses outside the section 274(d) categories, other contemporaneous evidence can support a deduction: invoices, cancelled cheques, credit card sales slips, account statements, cash register tapes, and petty cash slips for small payments. Publication 583 lists exactly these as supporting documents for business expenses.
The trap is proof of payment on its own. The IRS states plainly that proving you paid an amount does not by itself establish entitlement to a deduction — you also need documents showing that you incurred the cost, and what for. A card statement line reading "AMZN Mktp" is proof of payment with the crucial part missing. Pairing the statement line with an order confirmation or invoice restores it, which is why statement-to-receipt matching is worth doing monthly rather than annually.
The Cohan rule is a last resort, not a method
Cohan is a 1930 appellate decision allowing a court to estimate a deduction where the taxpayer clearly incurred an expense but cannot document the amount. It is applied at a court's discretion, against the taxpayer whose own inexactitude caused the problem, and it does not apply at all to anything covered by section 274(d).
Treating it as a plan has two problems. First, it is invoked in litigation, which means you are already in a dispute you would rather not be in. Second, the categories where losing receipts is easiest — travel and vehicles — are precisely the ones it cannot reach. It is worth knowing that the doctrine exists, and it is not worth organising your records around.
Standard rates that replace receipts for one thing only
Some costs have optional standard amounts that remove the need to prove the amount — the standard mileage rate for vehicle use and the standard meal allowance for travel. They replace proof of the amount only. You still have to substantiate the time, the place and the business purpose, and for mileage the record required is a contemporaneous log of the miles.
So a standard rate does not mean no records; it means a different record. Trading a fuel receipt for a mileage log is often a good trade, because the log is easier to keep and harder to lose. Which method suits your situation, and whether you are eligible for it at all, is a question for a tax professional rather than a guide — the rates and their conditions change from year to year.
The version of this problem you can actually fix
Every rule above rewards a record made at the time and punishes one reconstructed later. The reliable fix is not a better argument at filing time, it is a two-second capture at the point of sale, because a photographed receipt with a six-word reason satisfies all four elements while you still remember them.
This is the part within your control. The substantiation rules are fixed and the audit rules are fixed; the gap between receiving a receipt and recording it is not. Closing that gap is what makes the rest of this page academic — you never need to know what you can claim without a receipt if you did not lose it.
Questions
Common questions
How much can I claim without receipts?
There is no blanket allowance in US federal tax. The nearest thing is the rule in 26 CFR 1.274-5 that documentary evidence is not required for expenses under $75 other than lodging — but you must still record the amount, time, place and business purpose. Anything at or above $75, and any lodging cost at any amount, requires documentary evidence.
Will the IRS accept bank statements instead of receipts?
Sometimes, and not on their own. Publication 583 states that proof of payment does not by itself establish entitlement to a deduction — you also need something showing what you bought, such as an invoice or a sales slip. A statement paired with an order confirmation is much stronger than a statement alone, and neither helps for expenses governed by section 274(d).
What happens if I get audited and have no receipts?
For ordinary business expenses you can try to substantiate them with other contemporaneous records, and a court may estimate under the Cohan doctrine. For travel, meals away from home, gifts and listed property, section 274(d) bars estimation, so the deduction is generally disallowed. Anyone actually facing an examination should be talking to a tax professional, not to a guide.
Do I need a receipt for expenses under $75?
Not a receipt, but yes a record. The regulation excuses documentary evidence below $75 for anything other than lodging while travelling away from home. The substantiation elements — amount, time, place, business purpose — still apply, so a contemporaneous note or log is doing the work the receipt would have done.
Does the $75 rule apply to lodging?
No. 26 CFR 1.274-5 singles out lodging while travelling away from home as requiring documentary evidence regardless of the amount. A $40 hotel charge needs a receipt; a $40 taxi generally does not.
Can I reconstruct receipts at the end of the year?
The rules favour records kept at or near the time of the expense, and the strict-substantiation categories are written specifically to exclude after-the-fact approximation. Recreating a year of travel from a calendar is weak evidence and a lot of work. Capturing each receipt when it is handed to you is less work and better evidence.