Hello and thank you for the opportunity to assist you. There may be a slight delay between your follow ups and my replies as I am typing out my answer. Please remember that this is general information only, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is formed.

This depends on what kind of receipts these are, or rather, how they can apply. You must keep your records as long as they may be needed for the administration of any provision of the IRS. Generally, this means you must keep records that support items shown on your return until the period of limitations for that return runs out.

The period of limitations is the period of time in which you can amend your return to claim a credit or refund or the IRS can assess additional tax:


If you:

-Owe additional tax, then it may be 3 years
-Do not report income that you should and it is more
than 25% of the gross income shown on your return, then it may be 6 years
-File a fraudulent return, then it is no limit
-Do not file a return, then it is no limit
-File a claim for credit or refund after you filed
your return, then it is later of 3 years or 2 years -after tax was paid.
-File a claim for a loss from worthless securities, then it is 7 years

(Publication 552)

So as you can see, if they are claiming you defrauded the IRS, then there is "no limit" to how long you are supposed to keep the receipts. Most companies keep them 7 years. Of course this is ironic in that no one can "predict" that the IRS would claim this, so generally speaking, if it has been 7+ years, you can argue that you did not anticipate this matter to come up and have destroyed your receipts by standard practice, and that their destruction does not add to your guilt.

Remember, the onus is on them to prove your guilt, and not on your to prove your innocence. However, IRS tends to be very aggressive so you may wish to retain counsel specializing in tax matters:

http://www.okbar.org/public/services/referral.htm

If you cannot afford one, the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic program serves individuals who have a problem with the IRS and whose income is below a certain level:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4134.pdf

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