As a small business owner you might often hear that you need to make sure to keep all your receipts in case the IRS audits you in the future, but you actually only need to keep some receipts.
According to the IRS Publication 463, if the expense is over $75 you will need to keep documentary evidence of the transaction. This means you will need something more substantial than a bank or credit card statement.
A receipt (documentary evidence) should clearly state the date, vendor, amount, and purchase detail.
You’re probably wondering if your picture or scanned in photo of your receipt will be accepted by the IRS and it will! The IRS has been accepting scanned copies of documents since 1997 (according to the Revenue Proclamation Rule 97-22). The rule is your scan has to be an exact copy of the original and contain all important information. Just be sure to have these saved in an organized manner so that’s it will be easy to find in case of an audit.