Do you need receipts for expenses under $75?

The rule in plain terms

Chapter 5 of Publication 463 (2025) starts from a strict position: if you deduct travel, gift or transportation expenses you must be able to prove them, and you generally need documentary evidence such as receipts, canceled checks or bills in addition to your own record. It then lists three conditions under which the documentary evidence is not needed. One, you have meals or lodging expenses while traveling away from home for which you account to your employer under an accountable plan and you use a per diem allowance method that includes meals, lodging or both. Two, your expense, other than lodging, is less than $75. Three, you have a transportation expense for which a receipt is not readily available.

Notice the boundary. The test is “less than $75,” so $75 itself is not covered, and the worksheet at the end of the chapter says to attach receipted bills for all lodging and for any other expense of $75.00 or more.

What the exception does not remove

The exception removes the receipt, not the record. Table 5-1 lists the elements you must still be able to prove for each travel expense: the amount (each separate expense for travel, lodging and meals, with incidental expenses totaled in reasonable categories such as taxis, fees and tips), the time (the dates you left and returned and the days spent on business), the place (destination or area) and the business purpose or business benefit. For transportation and car expenses you also record the date, your destination, the business purpose, and for a car the mileage of each business use and the total miles for the year. You prove these in an account book, diary, log, statement of expense, trip sheet or similar record, kept at or near the time of the expense. A record kept weekly counts as timely, and a record prepared on a computer is adequate.

What counts as a good receipt

The publication says documentary evidence is ordinarily adequate if it shows the amount, date, place and essential character of the expense. A hotel receipt is enough for travel if it shows the hotel’s name and location, the dates of the stay, and separate amounts for lodging, meals and telephone calls. A restaurant receipt is enough for a business meal if it shows the name and location, the number of people served, and the date and amount; if the charge includes items other than food and beverages, the receipt must show that. A canceled check with a bill from the payee ordinarily establishes the cost, but a canceled check alone does not prove business purpose.

Worked examples

You spend $48 on a taxi-and-tip category of local travel and $62 on a client lunch. Both are under $75 and neither is lodging, so no receipt is required, but you note the date, place, amount and purpose of each. A single $85 dinner with a client is $75 or more, so you keep the receipt showing the restaurant, the number of people, the date and the amount. A $140 hotel night always needs the hotel receipt. A $30 bus ticket where the driver issues no receipt falls under the transportation exception.

Use the checker above: 62 with “another non-lodging expense” says no receipt required; 85 says yes; any lodging amount says yes unless you tick the per diem box, in which case an accountable plan per diem removes the receipt requirement for lodging and meals that the per diem covers. The page cannot tell whether your plan qualifies, only what the rule says.

When there is no receipt at all

If your records are incomplete, you must prove the missing element with your own written or oral statement containing specific information and other supporting evidence. For a cost, time, place or date, the supporting evidence must be direct or documentary; for business purpose or business relationship it can be circumstantial. Where the nature of the situation prevents getting a receipt, you may satisfy the rules with the best other proof available. If records are lost for reasons beyond your control, such as fire or flood, you can reconstruct them. Approximations and estimates, the publication says, are not deductible.

Employees, employers and how long to keep records

If you give your records to your employer and are reimbursed, you generally do not have to keep copies, but you may have to prove expenses if you claim more than the reimbursement, are paid under a nonaccountable plan, your employer does not use adequate accounting procedures, or you are related to your employer. As a general rule records supporting a deduction must be kept for 3 years from the date you file the return that claims it; Pub. 583 covers the details. Records of business use of a car must be kept for each year of the recovery period.

Sources

• IRS Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses (2025): Chapter 5, How To Prove Expenses; What Are Adequate Records; Documentary evidence; Exception; Adequate evidence; Timely kept records; Proving business purpose; What if I Have Incomplete Records; Table 5-1; Table 5-3; How Long To Keep Records and Receipts. Read November 2, 2026.

Edition read: Publication 463 (2025), for use in preparing 2025 returns. Rates and dollar limits on this page are the 2025 figures printed in that edition; check the current publication, form instructions and GSA.gov per diem tables for your tax year. This page summarizes the publication and does not replace it.