No receipt, no deduction, right? Generally speaking, yes. The mantra of small business accounting has been relentlessly onerous for decades: “No receipt, no deduction.”

My own tax clients are quick to remind me of this basic rule of record keeping. Over the years, I’ve heard this countless times: “But I don’t have a receipt. I guess I can’t take the deduction, right?”

What is my response to the lament “No receipt, no deduction”? “Not so fast! Wherever there is a fiscal rule, there is an exception to the rule.”

In certain situations, the IRS penalizes taking deductions without a receipt. Here are three legal exceptions to the “No Receipt, No Deduction” rule.

EXCEPTION #1: Vehicle Expenses

You are allowed to deduct your vehicle expenses to the extent you used your vehicle for business. If you drove your car 100% on business, then 100% of your vehicle expenses are deductible.

And you have two options to determine those vehicle expenses:

1) The actual expense method 2) The mileage method

Our focus here is on option #2, because with the mileage method, your vehicle expense is simply the number of business miles multiplied by the official IRS mileage rate.

For 2014, this rate is 56 cents per mile. In 2014, if you drive your vehicle 10,000 miles for business, you can claim a deduction of $5,600, without having to keep any receipts for gas, oil changes, repairs and maintenance, insurance, etc.

You do have to document your business mileage through some type of written record, but this is often much easier than keeping all those receipts for actual vehicle expenses.

EXCEPTION #2: Meals While Traveling

When you’re traveling out of town on an overnight business trip, you can deduct the actual cost of your meals (by keeping your receipt), or you can rely on the little-known “Per Diem Method” (no receipt required).

The Per Diem method gives you a daily food allowance for each day of the trip, based on the part of the country you visit. For example, the daily meal rate for Birmingham, AL is $56; for San Francisco, it’s $71 (as of October 2014).

To find per diem amounts for any state, go to:

http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104877

EXCEPTION #3: The $75 Rule

Here’s another easy way to avoid the hassle of saving receipts: This one involves your company’s food and entertainment expenses. Believe it or not, the IRS does not require a receipt when your business meal or entertainment expenses are less than $75 per expense.

It sounds too good to be true? Well, there’s a “catch,” of course: You still need to keep track of the following five facts related to the deductible event:

1) WHO did you eat or hang out with? ie the names of the persons and the nature of their business relationship with you 2) WHEN did the entertainment occur? ie the date 3) WHERE did the entertainment take place? ie the name of the restaurant or other place 4) WHY did you meet? ie a description of the business purpose of the meal or event 5) HOW MUCH did you spend? i.e. the dollar amount

You must record these five facts in a log. Your daily appointment book or daily timer is the perfect place to write this down in less than a minute. Once you have met the IRS verification requirements, you can dispose of the receipt. In the event of an audit, you will be covered.

Two final comments: Exception #2 applies to overnight travel situations, regardless of whether you are dining alone or with business associates. Exception #3 applies to meal and entertainment expenses incurred when you are with someone with whom you have a current or potential business relationship, regardless of whether you are in town or traveling overnight.