How Long to Keep Business Receipts

The IRS rules at a glance

Generally, you keep the records that support income, deductions or credits on a tax return until the period of limitations for that return runs out. That's the window in which you can amend the return to claim a refund, or the IRS can assess more tax. The IRS record retention page lists these periods for income tax returns:

How to count the years

Unless a rule says otherwise, the years run from when you filed the return, not from the date on the receipt. A return filed before the due date is treated as filed on the due date. So a receipt from January 2026, reported on a 2026 return filed in April 2027, is generally kept until at least April 2030 under the 3-year rule.

In practice, most small businesses keep each tax year's receipts together and review the whole year at once when its period ends, rather than tracking each receipt's own deadline.

Receipts for equipment and other assets

Receipts for things you keep and use in the business, such as a laptop, tools or a vehicle, follow a different rule. The IRS says to keep records relating to property until the period of limitations expires for the year in which you dispose of the property. You need them to work out depreciation and the gain or loss when you sell.

That means a camera bought in 2026 and sold in 2031 needs its purchase receipt until the period for the 2031 return ends. If you got property in a nontaxable exchange, keep the records for both the old and the new property until the period expires for the year you dispose of the new one.

Tip: tag asset purchases (for example "Equipment") so you can find them quickly years later, long after the rest of that year's receipts have stopped mattering.

Can you keep digital copies instead of paper?

Yes, if the system meets the standards in Revenue Procedure 97-22. It says records kept in an electronic storage system that meets its requirements count as records for tax purposes. Among other things, the system must transfer records accurately and completely, index them so they can be retrieved, have reasonable controls against unauthorized changes or loss, and be able to produce legible, readable copies (including paper copies) on request.

What a digital receipt should show

• The whole receipt, edge to edge, including the merchant name at the top and the totals at the bottom.
• The date, the amount paid and, ideally, what was bought.
• Text that's sharp enough to read when printed.
• A note with the business reason when it isn't obvious from the receipt.

Our guide on how to scan and organize receipts for taxes walks through getting clear scans and checking the fields that matter.

Before you throw anything away

• Keep copies of your filed tax returns. The IRS recommends it, and they help with future returns and amendments.
• Check other reasons to keep records. Insurance companies, lenders or creditors may require them for longer than the IRS does.
• Don't discard asset records just because the purchase year has passed; they follow the asset.
• If you're unsure, keep it. A digital copy takes no space, and you can delete it later.

With receipts in an app, "keeping" a year is simple: leave it in the library and export it once a year as a ZIP with every image, so you also have a copy outside the app. See the tax receipt scanner page for exporting a full tax year.