Tax
Apr. 19, 2024
In an IRS audit, if you don’t have receipts here’s a workaround
The Cohan rule is a legal principle that allows taxpayers to deduct expenses without receipts if they can prove them by other credible evidence.
Robert W. Wood
Managing Partner, Wood LLP
333 Sacramento St
San Francisco , California 94111-3601
Phone: (415) 834-0113
Fax: (415) 789-4540
Email: wood@WoodLLP.com
Univ of Chicago Law School
Wood is a tax lawyer at Wood LLP, and often advises lawyers and litigants about tax issues.
As anyone who has been through a tax audit knows, the IRS wants to see receipts. But it is easy to misplace them. Is there any alternative to losing your audit over a lack of what the IRS calls substantiation? In one famous tax case, Cohan v. Commissioner a taxpayer won even though he didn’t have any. George M. Cohan was a Broadway pioneer with hits like “Give My Regards to Broadway” and “Yankee Doodle Boy.” His...