What information is on a gas station receipt?

Station name and address, date and time, pump number, fuel grade, gallons to three decimals, price per gallon, fuel total and the payment details — with road taxes embedded in the per-gallon price rather than listed separately.

Why do gas receipts show gallons to three decimals?

Pumps meter fuel in thousandths of a gallon, and the receipt reports the metered figure. Gallons × price per gallon must equal the total to the cent — the arithmetic auditors and expense systems check first.

Is there sales tax on a gas receipt?

Usually no separate line — federal and state motor-fuel excise taxes are built into the posted per-gallon price. Convenience-store items on the same receipt do get sales tax lines.

Do I need fuel receipts for taxes?

Only under the actual-expense vehicle method. The standard mileage rate needs a mileage log instead — fuel receipts add nothing to it. Reimbursement policies, though, often want the itemized fuel receipt.

How to Make a Gas Station Receipt (Gallons, Grade, Pump)

To make a gas station receipt: station header, date and time, pump number, fuel grade, gallons dispensed (to three decimals — pumps meter that precisely), price per gallon, and the total, plus the payment block. One multiplication rules the document: gallons × price per gallon = fuel total, to the cent. The gas station template carries all of it prebuilt.

Legitimate uses: stations reissuing records, drivers reconstructing a real fill-up for their own files after the pump printer failed (the recovery-first playbook), fleet documentation, props and testing. What you submit for reimbursement must be genuine or a declared substitute — never a reconstruction presented as an original.

The 6 steps

Header: station brand and street address; real receipts add store/site numbers and often the phone.
Timestamp: date and time — pay-at-pump receipts are timestamped to the minute.
Pump and product: "PUMP 04", then the grade — REGULAR / UNLEADED 87, MIDGRADE 89, PREMIUM 91/93, or DIESEL.
The metered lines: GALLONS: 11.482, PRICE/GAL: $3.499, FUEL TOTAL: $40.17. Three decimals on gallons, three on price (the /10 cent convention), two on money.
Extras if any: car wash, in-store items — separate lines, taxed per local rules (motor fuel itself carries excise tax inside the pump price, not a sales-tax line).
Payment block: method, last four for cards, auth code on pay-at-pump slips (what those codes mean).

The realism details

Fuel receipts rarely show a sales-tax line — road taxes live inside the per-gallon price; a receipt adding 8% sales tax to fuel reads wrong immediately. Gallons with only one decimal, prices in round numbers, and pump totals that don't equal the multiplication are the other tells. Real slips are terse: no marketing footer beyond a loyalty pitch, printed narrow on 58mm paper (why they look like that).

For expenses and taxes

Reimbursement policies want the itemized fuel detail — gallons and price — rather than the card slip (what statements can't show); mileage-rate deductions want the log, not fuel receipts at all (the mileage rules). Fleet drivers: your fuel card already captured everything centrally.

Make one now

The gas station template at /create formats pump metadata, three-decimal metering and payment block automatically — enter grade, gallons and price, and the arithmetic locks itself consistent.

The bottom line

Pump, grade, gallons × price = total — with no sales-tax line and timestamps to the minute. Reconstruct only real fills, from your statement and the day's posted price, for your own records.