How long do you need to keep receipts for the CRA?

Six years. If you are self-employed, run a business, rent out property or claim expenses on your return, the CRA expects you to keep your records and the receipts behind them for 6 years.

The part people get wrong is when the six years start. The clock does not run from the date printed on the receipt. It runs from the end of the last tax year the record relates to, and for individuals, including sole proprietors, the tax year is the calendar year.

A receipt from March 2026 belongs to the 2026 tax year, which ends on 31 December 2026. Six years after that is 31 December 2032, nearly seven years after you paid for the item.

When six years is not enough#

The CRA names three situations where the period runs longer:

1. You filed late. If you file an income tax return late, keep its records for six years from the date you filed it.
2. You objected or appealed. Keep everything the dispute needs until the latest of: the day it is resolved, the day the time for any further appeal runs out, and the end of the usual six years.
3. The record relates to more than one year. "The last tax year they relate to" is doing real work in the rule. The receipt for equipment you claim capital cost allowance on relates to every year you claim it, and to the year you sell it, so keep it until six years after that last year.

The same applies to the purchase records of a rental property or a business asset: keep them for as long as you own it, and for six years after the tax year you dispose of it.

What counts as a record#

The CRA's business records guidance asks for supporting documents that show the date of the purchase, the seller's name and address, the buyer's name and address, and a full description of the goods or services. For a GST/HST registrant, a purchase of $100 or more also needs the vendor's business number to support an input tax credit. Sales invoices, purchase invoices, cash register receipts, contracts, bank and credit card statements and cancelled cheques all count.

For what a receipt needs to show before you can claim back the GST or HST on it, see GST/HST receipt rules.

Your records have to be kept in Canada#

This is the rule most apps don't mention. The CRA says:

"You must keep records at your place of business or your residence in Canada, unless the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) gives you written permission to keep them elsewhere."

Its electronic record-keeping circular, IC05-1R1, adds that records kept outside Canada and accessed electronically from Canada are not considered records in Canada. The CRA may accept a copy that you make available in Canada in a readable form, and it can give written permission to keep electronic records abroad, but neither happens by default.

Bilbx stores receipts in Sydney, Australia. So treat Bilbx as the place you capture and organize receipts, not as your only copy: export your records regularly to a computer or drive in Canada. Tax Lab's ZIP export (Premium) packs each claimed receipt's image with a CSV of the details, in one file.

The CRA also reminds you that handing your records to someone else doesn't hand over the responsibility: under IC05-1R1 you stay responsible for keeping them readable and available even when a bookkeeper, an accountant or an application does the keeping.

Destroying records early#

You can't shorten the six years on your own. To destroy records before the period is up you need the CRA's written permission, which you can ask for with Form T137, Request for Destruction of Records, or by writing to your tax services office.

Thermal till receipts fade long before six years are up, which is the practical reason to image them early. Whether a photo can replace the paper, and what the CRA expects of the image, is covered in does the CRA accept photos of receipts.