Technically your position may be even better with no receipt. Nobody wants the information that they are doing this out there. The tax people can really cause issues and the owners are pretty cognizant of that.

Nobody in their right mind wants the tax people on their backside. Audit unclean in one tax area. They call in their counterparts in other tax divisions to the party. Not wanted or risked. So just fix the problem unless you are crazy.

In high tax areas of the world. If you want a written bill for the job in many cases the job will not get done. It is my understanding that in Germany for example. If you do not go along with tradesmen on these so called under the counter or under the table deals you may have a hard time getting a job done. Unless you want to pay a small fortune for it. Just the way the world rotates but more so in countries that have really punative taxation setups.

I will finish with a true story. A local business owner was audited. He accidentally gave them the wrong books. It turned into a real financial bloodbath for him but the misteak was somewhat humourus at the same time. Not to him unfortunately.

Excellent point.