Does the CRA accept photos of receipts?

Yes. The CRA accepts electronic images of paper receipts as records, and once a receipt has been imaged properly, the image is the record and the paper can go. The conditions are about the quality of the copy and where it is kept, not about whether it was a scanner or a phone that made it.

What the CRA says about imaging#

The CRA's page on acceptable formats allows you to produce electronic images of paper documents, provided the image:

• is an accurate reproduction, made with the intention of taking the place of the paper document
• gives the same information as the paper document
• doesn't obscure significant details through limits of resolution, tonality or hue

Once paper documents are imaged to the national standard, the CRA says, "the images become the permanent records. You can therefore destroy the imaged paper item." If your imaging can't meet that standard, you have to keep the originals too.

For a sole proprietor with a phone, the practical reading is simple: capture the whole receipt, sharply enough that every figure is legible, keep the images organized so any one can be found, and check them as you go rather than at tax time.

What a photo of a receipt needs to show#

A photo is only as good as what can be read from it. Make sure it shows:

• the supplier's name and, ideally, address
• the date
• what you bought, and the total
• any GST, HST, PST or QST lines, and the supplier's GST/HST registration number if it is printed

The last point matters if you claim input tax credits: from $100, a receipt needs the GST/HST charged and the supplier's registration number before the credit can be claimed. See GST/HST receipt rules.

Thermal paper fades, sometimes within months. A faded receipt imaged in December can be missing the very figures that matter, so photograph receipts when you get them.

Emailed and PDF receipts#

A receipt that arrives as an email or a PDF is already an electronic record. The Income Tax Act requires records kept electronically to be retained in an electronically readable format for the full period, even when a paper copy exists. Keep the original file; a printout on its own isn't enough. The simplest way to stop them getting lost in an inbox is a rule that forwards them automatically — see how to forward email receipts automatically.

Keep a copy in Canada#

The CRA requires records to be kept at your place of business or residence in Canada unless it gives you written permission otherwise. IC05-1R1 adds that records kept outside Canada and accessed electronically from Canada are not considered records in Canada, though the CRA may accept a copy that you make available in Canada in a readable form.

You stay responsible#

Using an app doesn't move the obligation. IC05-1R1 says a person who keeps records electronically is not relieved of any of the record-keeping, readability, retention or access responsibilities by contracting them out to a bookkeeper, an accountant or an application service provider. The CRA also recommends backups that can be restored to a usable format.

How long to keep the images — six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to — is covered in how long to keep receipts for the CRA.