The legality of electronic receipts
We’ve had several people asking us whether scanned, photographed or otherwise electronic receipts are legal and accepted by the IRS for tax purposes. We did some digging and found the answer to share with everyone.
The short answer is YES, electronic receipts are legal and accepted by the IRS for tax and audit purposes as long as they can be accessed reliably, in case of an audit, and are legible (irs.gov). A short list of acceptable electronic documents are scanned or photographed images of original receipts, credit card receipts, and credit card statements that show the amount, date of payment, and the vendor or merchant.
I'm valid!
If you’re into legalese, the two articles dealing directly with the legality of electronic receipts for tax purposes are IRS Publication 552 and even more information about electronic receipts can be found starting on page 9 of IRS Revenue Procedure 97-22 (PDF).
Please note that we can not give out tax advice, so check with your tax agent or attorney.
If Credit Card statements are allowed, then, can I assume that bank statements when using a debit card are acceptable as well? Thanks for the info.
Christy Dennis
April 23, 2010 at 2:27 pm
Yep, we support a wide range of banks. The full list of the banks we support for importing expenses can be found here: https://www.expensify.com/content/help/import-expenses#banks
Zhenya Grinshteyn
April 26, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Scanned receipts may be legal, but a “receipt” must also show what was purchased. The ones that come in with the credit card charge in Expensify simply show that a charge was made. This is no different than looking at the statement for “proof.”
This is OK for things like Taxi’s, but not for other purchases. For instance, if you buy something online, we should attach the invoice or bill that shows exactly what was purchased.
Sara Laidlaw
July 7, 2011 at 3:33 pm
[...] today’s digital age, it is perfectly legal to use an electronic copy of an original receipt for IRS purposes. So there really is no hurdle to [...]
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