[Earlsfat]

A cancelled check to something... oh lets say... Bob's Lawnmower Blade Sharpening Service for about $20 once or twice a year ... is pretty irrefutable evidence that this guy didn't go out and manufacture deductions.

If your business bank statements say you deposited $20k for the year, your deposit receipts total $20k for the year, your records indicate $20k in sales for the year, you don't have any other income (no deposits in your personal account, IRA, savings account, no extra receipts PERIOD) ... you would tend to believe that perhaps that the business only generated $20k in sales. Unless you're an IRS agent... then it now becoems plausible that a lawn mowing service generates $1.2 billion dollars a year and that you are hiding it in some swiss bank account or in a safe in your 4th home in the French Riviera.

Didn't say no documentation whatsoever... They guy doesn't have his receipts for a particular vendor, because he paid with a credit card and figured the statement had the date, vendors name, etc... it's a pretty big vendor, and they only sell one line of products which can not be mistaken for another company that perhaps might sell personal use products... in the legal system a cancelled check is plenty of documentation... the IRS holds YOU to a higher standard... merely in an attempt to get every last drop of blood (real or perceived) out of anyone even remotely involved with whomever they are investigating.

ASSHOLES.