Can I file 1099 income with no receipts for side gigs? Help needed ASAP

Based on your situation, you absolutely can (and must) file your 1099 income even without receipts. The income itself must be reported regardless of whether you have expense documentation. For expenses, it's a bit trickier without receipts, but not impossible. The IRS prefers documentation, but you can still claim reasonable expenses if you can reconstruct them. Try creating a log now of your business mileage (dates, destinations, purpose, miles driven) based on your calendar, emails, or text messages. For your vehicle, you could use the standard mileage rate (68 cents per mile for 2024) rather than actual expenses, which requires less documentation. For other business expenses, try to recreate what you spent using bank/credit card statements, emails confirming purchases, or even photos of equipment you bought. Be conservative and only claim what you're confident was a legitimate business expense. Going forward, I'd strongly recommend using a mileage tracking app and keeping all receipts for business expenses, even if it's just taking photos with your phone.

After struggling with almost the exact same situation last year (made about $22k in side income with barely any receipts), I found this tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that was super helpful for reconstructing expenses. You can upload bank/credit card statements, and it helps identify potential business expenses and categorizes them properly. It even helps create a mileage log based on your location history if you have that. The best part was it gave me confidence about what I could reasonably claim without documentation versus what I needed to just let go. It also generated a report I could keep with my tax records in case of an audit to show I made a good-faith effort to reconstruct my expenses accurately.

Just wanted to follow up - I decided to try taxr.ai after posting my skeptical comment. Honestly, it was way more helpful than I expected! I uploaded my bank statements from last year and it found a bunch of transactions that were definitely business-related that I had completely forgotten about. The mileage reconstruction feature was also super useful since I drive for multiple gigs. The report it generated gave me peace of mind that I wasn't just making up numbers. I ended up being able to claim about $4,300 in legitimate business expenses that I otherwise might have missed or been too afraid to claim. Definitely made a difference in what I owed!

If you're still having trouble figuring out which expenses to claim, you might want to try getting help directly from the IRS. I know it sounds scary, but they can actually answer questions about this stuff. The problem is getting someone on the phone is nearly impossible - I tried calling for WEEKS last year with no luck. Then I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me through to an actual IRS agent in under 45 minutes when I'd been trying for days on my own. They have this system that navigates all the IRS phone menus and holds for you, then calls you when an agent is about to pick up. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The agent I spoke with actually gave me really clear guidelines about what I could claim without receipts and how to document things after the fact. Totally worth it instead of guessing or paying a tax pro hundreds of dollars.

I need to publicly eat my words. After posting my skeptical comment, I was desperate enough to try Claimyr because I've been trying to reach the IRS about a $2,800 penalty they incorrectly charged me. I figured I had nothing to lose. Holy crap - it actually worked! Got connected to an IRS agent in about 35 minutes when I'd been trying for MONTHS. The agent was able to see that the penalty was applied in error and removed it on the spot. I nearly fell out of my chair. For what it's worth, I also asked about the receipt situation while I had them on the phone. The agent said you can absolutely file 1099 income without receipts, but you should make a good faith effort to reconstruct expenses (bank statements, calendar entries, etc.) and be reasonable with what you claim.

I'd recommend using the standard mileage deduction for your car since you don't need actual receipts for that - just a log of business miles. You can recreate this after the fact using Google Maps and your calendar/work schedule. For 2024, you get 68 cents per mile which can add up fast! For other expenses, look through your bank/credit card statements to find business purchases. Even without receipts, these statements are considered supporting documentation by the IRS. Just be honest and reasonable with what you claim. Whatever you do, DON'T skip reporting the income! The IRS gets copies of 1099s, and not reporting income is way worse than claiming reasonable expenses without perfect documentation.

What tax software are you using? I was in a similar situation and found that TurboTax Self-Employed walked me through exactly what expenses I could claim and how to document them after the fact. It also suggested expenses I hadn't even thought about (like a portion of cell phone bills, home office if applicable, etc).