Disclaimer: This article describes general Czech rules current on 17 July 2026. It is not individual tax or legal advice. Evidence is assessed transaction by transaction; obtain professional advice before claiming a material or disputed expense or input VAT.
A Czech customer portal closes, an email attachment is deleted, or a thermal receipt fades before year-end. If you operate in Czechia as an OSVČ (osoba samostatně výdělečně činná, a self-employed person), does the cost disappear for tax purposes? Not necessarily. But a debit on your bank account does not create an automatic deduction either.
Start with the remedy that creates the cleanest audit trail: retrieve the supplier's original electronic file or a faithful replacement copy. If recovery is genuinely impossible, assemble independent records that explain the transaction from order to delivery and payment. Under Section 92 of the Czech Tax Code, the taxpayer proves the facts stated in a tax return and other filings. A plausible story is therefore weaker than a consistent set of contemporaneous records.
Do not treat “receipt” as one legal category
Before deciding what to claim, identify the actual problem:
- You lost your copy, but the supplier issued a valid document and still holds it.
- You have a till receipt without your business name; it may already be a valid simplified document.
- The document exists but a required detail is wrong or missing.
- The supplier never issued the required invoice.
- You have only a card transaction or bank transfer, with no reliable description of the supply.
These are not interchangeable. A copy retrieved from the supplier preserves the supplier's identity and original document number. A self-made spreadsheet merely records what you now say happened. And a document missing one field raises a different VAT question from having no tax document at all.
Czech income tax: prove the real business cost
Section 24 of the Czech Income Taxes Act concerns expenses incurred to achieve, secure, and maintain taxable income, in the amount proved by the taxpayer. For an actual-expense claim, the evidence should identify the supplier, what was supplied, when it was supplied, the amount, the connection with your taxable activity, and how it was paid or otherwise recorded under your accounting method.
That rule is wider than “possess a sheet titled Invoice,” but it is not a waiver of proof. Suppose your statement shows CZK 3,630.00 paid to an unfamiliar payment descriptor. It does not reveal whether the payment bought client-project software, a private item, a refundable deposit, or a service that was later cancelled. Add the order, contract, acceptance record, licence activation, delivery tracking, or work correspondence that answers those questions.
If you claim Czech percentage expenses (výdaje procentem z příjmů) rather than actual expenses, the individual purchase is not deducted again. The Czech flat-tax regime (paušální režim) also does not turn every lost receipt into a separate reduction of the flat payment. The record may still matter for VAT, business assets, another tax, or a later audit, so first identify which regime and obligation you are dealing with.
Input VAT has its own document conditions
The VAT analysis is separate. Section 72 of the Czech VAT Act links input-tax deduction to the use of the received taxable supply for qualifying economic activities. Section 73 sets the conditions for exercising that right. For ordinary domestic VAT charged to you by another Czech VAT payer, the baseline condition is to hold a VAT document (daňový doklad).
Some specifically listed VAT situations allow proof by other means when a document is unavailable. Do not generalise those exceptions to every Czech supplier invoice. In particular, a statement showing a gross amount does not prove that the payee was a VAT payer, that Czech VAT was correctly charged, or that the amount relates to a supply giving you a deduction.
Sections 29, 30 and 30a explain an important nuance. A Simplified VAT document (zjednodušený daňový doklad) can generally be issued where the total document amount does not exceed CZK 10,000, subject to statutory exclusions. It may omit the customer's identity and VAT number, the unit price, tax base, and separate VAT amount. A till receipt is therefore not defective merely because your name is absent. It must still contain the applicable required information, and the supply must be eligible for this format.
Section 34 also requires authenticity of origin, integrity of content, and legibility throughout retention. A file downloaded again from the supplier's portal, tied to the original number and supplier account, normally gives a much better audit trail than a document recreated by the customer after the event.
What each replacement record can actually prove
Duplicate from the supplier
Ask for the original PDF to be resent, or for a faithful copy from the supplier's invoicing system. Confirm the original document number, legal supplier, Czech VAT number where relevant, description, dates, net amount, tax, and total. Retain the supplier's email or portal history with it. Do not invent a new supplier-invoice number or rewrite its content yourself.
Simplified VAT document
A qualifying till receipt up to the statutory limit is not merely fallback evidence; it may itself be the prescribed VAT document. Check the supplier, document number, subject of supply, issue or tax-point data, rate, and total. The simplified format is unavailable for the transactions excluded by Section 30, including specified cross-border and recipient-liability cases.
Bank statement
A Bank statement is reliable evidence of the account, date, amount, and payment reference. It often says little about delivery or business purpose. Card statements may show an acquirer or brand rather than the legal supplier. Treat it as one link, not as an automatic income-tax deduction and never as an automatic input-VAT entitlement.
Contract, order, or delivery note
A Contract, order, or delivery note helps establish why the purchase was made, the agreed price, and whether goods or services were accepted. Combine complementary records: an order can show intent without delivery; a signed handover can show delivery without payment; a bank entry can show payment without the subject. Emails, service logs, stock receipts, and licence records may close the gaps.
Internal note
Create an Internal note promptly. Record who purchased what, from whom, on which date, for which assignment, at what price, and why the source document is missing. List each recovery attempt and link the other files. The note preserves context, but because you created it yourself, it cannot by itself establish the supplier's VAT, actual delivery, and every condition of deduction.
Evidence-strength table
| Grade | Examples | Practical meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Strong evidence | Supplier-sent copy of the original document; valid simplified document; contract plus priced, signed acceptance | Independently connects supplier, subject, amount, and date; a valid VAT document can also satisfy the documentary condition |
| Supporting evidence | Statement, order, supplier email, delivery tracking, licence log, stock receipt, photograph of the acquired asset | Confirms one or more parts of the transaction and becomes more useful when cross-referenced |
| Insufficient on its own | Self-authored note, manually reconstructed table, context-free screenshot, calendar entry | Explains your position but does not independently prove the complete supply or domestic input-VAT conditions |
This is not a mechanical scoring system. Several supporting records can corroborate one another, while a contradiction in supplier, amount, or date can undermine even a polished file. A high-value or unusual purchase naturally requires a clearer trail than routine low-value supplies.
Worked scenario: the missing SaaS invoice
A consultant pays CZK 3,630.00 for an annual licence used on Czech client work. The bank entry, checkout confirmation, active licence page, and support email survive; the invoice attachment does not. Together, these records explain the actual service and business link better than the payment alone. They may form an evidence bundle for an actual income-tax expense, but they do not guarantee the tax authority's conclusion.
If the price allegedly includes CZK 630.00 of Czech VAT, a VAT-registered consultant should not calculate a deduction from the bank amount alone. The consultant should obtain the supplier's VAT document and verify the legal supplier, VAT registration, supply, and figures. The same economic purchase can therefore have a supportable income-tax position while its input VAT remains unclaimed until the separate requirements are met.
Recovery checklist
- Classify the loss: whole document, unreadable copy, missing detail, or no document ever issued.
- Search the supplier portal, inbox, data box (datová schránka), old device, and cloud backups.
- Ask the legal supplier to resend the original file or issue a proper corrected version.
- Check document number, supplier, VAT number, subject, dates, and exact net/VAT/gross amounts.
- Cross-reference payment, order, contract, delivery, and business-use evidence.
- Date an internal note describing the loss and every recovery attempt.
- Make separate decisions for the income-tax expense and input VAT.
- Escalate a material or disputed item to a Czech tax adviser before filing.
Preventing the next loss with Taxorio
Where your plan includes the feature, Taxorio lets you photograph a receipt from a phone or upload a document to an expense. The uploaded source file stays attached to the expense and can later be downloaded. Photograph thermal paper while every edge, supplier detail, and amount is still legible, then verify the stored file.
Taxorio does not reconstruct missing legal evidence and cannot replace a document that a supplier never issued. It reduces future loss by keeping the uploaded source beside the expense record. You remain responsible for checking the document, retaining the corroborating trail, and applying the correct Czech tax treatment.