$75 Receipt Rule
Iryna Stepanchuk, CPA
My firm helps entrepreneurs in service-based industries reduce their taxes by at least 30% & increase their net worth??. Entrepreneur ?? CPA ??Tax Strategist ?? National Firm with local presence ??
Did you ever hear about $75 rule for receipts?
Under the $75 rule, you are not required to keep receipts for overnight travel, gifts, and vehicle expenses IF the expense is under $75.
But should be taking advantage of the $75 rule? Even if you do not need to have receipts for travel, gift, and vehicle expenses, you still need proof of those expenditures! But how do you prove an expense when you do not have a receipt??
Can your bank and credit card statements serve as a proof of the expense the IRS is looking for? – NO. The statements will only prove that you spent money but not what you paid for or business purpose of the expenditure. You can purchase groceries at the gas station and still have it show up on your bank statement as a gas station expenditure.
You can keep daily business mileage and expense log to document all the expenses that fall in that $75-and-less category. IRS Publication 463 has an example of the log you can use. But it is time-consuming and confusing, so our recommendation is to keep receipts for every expenditure and ignore the $75 rule.?To make it less manual, you can utilize a number of receipts management apps currently on the market, like Expensify, Shoeboxed, Evernote, Receipt Bank, Google Drive, Dropbox.
If you need help with record-keeping, expense tracking, or expense maximization, you can complete our New Customer Intake Form for a free consultation.?