Lost hospitality receipt in Germany — what to do?

Immediate checklist: the right order

A lost hospitality receipt is annoying, but rarely a total loss. What matters is that you act quickly and take the steps in the right order. A well-documented replacement stands a far better chance than a patchy reconstruction months later.

1. Ask the restaurant for a duplicate. This is the route the tax office prefers. Modern till systems store every transaction, and many restaurants will happily reprint a copy of the invoice — a duplicate meets the same formal requirements as the original.
2. Secure proof of payment. A credit-card statement or bank statement shows that the expense actually occurred. On its own it is not enough, but as supporting evidence it backs up your details.
3. Create a replacement hospitality receipt (Eigenbeleg). If no duplicate is available, promptly document all mandatory details yourself — occasion, participants, place, date and amount — and sign the receipt.

This order is not an end in itself. The closer your evidence is to the original, the lower the risk that the deduction of your business meal costs fails. Also note briefly that the original was lost and that you tried to obtain a duplicate.

What the tax office requires: the 7-mandatory-details checklist

Under Section 4(5) sentence 1 no. 2 EStG, reasonable business meal costs are 70% deductible as business expenses — provided their amount and business purpose are evidenced. The law requires written details of the place, date, participants, occasion and amount of the expenses.

For your replacement receipt this means: it must contain the same details that a proper hospitality receipt carries. Work through the 7-mandatory-details checklist point by point:

• occasion of the meal — stated specifically, not just “business meal”
• host — who issued the invitation?
• person(s) entertained — all participants by name
• place and date of the meal
• amount of the expenses including the tip
• declaration of the business purpose
• signature of the host

If one of these details is missing, you risk losing the entire deduction. The occasion in particular is often worded too vaguely: “project meeting on the website relaunch with client Müller” is audit-proof, “working lunch” is not.

The limits: what a replacement receipt can do — and what it cannot

Honesty is due at this point: a self-issued receipt for a lost domestic restaurant invoice is not legally guaranteed. The Federal Ministry of Finance circular of 30 June 2021 (IV C 6 – S 2145/19/10003 :003) requires that the restaurant invoice must, as a rule, be machine-generated and electronically recorded. Handwritten invoices are not sufficient within Germany.

The replacement receipt is therefore a fallback, and the tax office decides on its recognition case by case. Your position is stronger the more carefully you followed the order above: first try the duplicate, then secure the proof of payment, then document promptly and completely.

You should know two further limits. First: a self-issued receipt does not allow input VAT recovery — that requires a proper invoice under Sections 14 and 15 UStG. If such an invoice exists, the input VAT is 100% recoverable even though the meal costs themselves only count at 70% (Section 15(1a) UStG). Second: invoices over €250 must state the name of the host; up to €250 gross, the reduced details of a small-amount invoice under Section 33 UStDV apply.

The situation is different abroad: there, the tax authorities may also accept handwritten invoices. What applies in that case is covered in the article on hospitality receipts from abroad.

Finally, remember retention: accounting records — including replacement receipts and the attached proof of payment — must be kept for eight years since 1 January 2025 (previously ten; Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act).

Template: replacement hospitality receipt to fill in

So you do not forget any mandatory detail, there is a ready-made template with all seven fields. Print it or fill it in digitally, sign it, and file it as the accounting record together with your proof of payment.

Belegomat is a chat service that turns a photo of a restaurant receipt into a structured German-compliant replacement hospitality receipt (Eigenbeleg) as a PDF.

Common mistakes

Most replacement receipts fail not because the original was lost, but because of avoidable formal errors. These five are the most common in practice:

• Waiting too long: details reconstructed from memory weeks later look implausible.
• The occasion is worded too vaguely — “business meal” is not enough; the specific occasion must be recognisable.
• Incomplete participants: all persons entertained and the host must be named.
• The host’s signature is missing — without it, the receipt is practically worthless.
• No note about the loss of the original and no proof of payment attached.

Conclusion

In the best case, a lost hospitality receipt costs you nothing more than a call to the restaurant. If you cannot get a duplicate, secure your proof of payment and promptly create a complete replacement receipt with all seven mandatory details.

Be aware of the limits: a self-issued receipt does not allow input VAT recovery, and recognition is decided case by case. Even so, a clean replacement receipt puts you in a far better position than no evidence at all.

This article is not tax advice. Recognition is decided on a case-by-case basis by the relevant tax authority.