Does the IRS Require Receipts Under $75? The Rule Explained

The IRS does not require a receipt for most business expenses under $75. The rule is real — it comes from Treasury Regulation 1.274-5(c)(2)(iii) and is reflected in IRS Publication 463 — but it is narrower than the version that circulates: you still must record the expense's amount, date, place and business purpose, and lodging expenses require receipts regardless of amount.

This is general information, not tax advice — confirm specifics with a tax professional.

What the rule actually says

For travel, meal and certain other business expenses under $75, "documentary evidence" (a receipt, canceled check or bill) is not required. Three carve-outs matter:

• Lodging is excluded. Hotel stays need documentary evidence at any amount (with a narrow exception for employees on per diem plans).
• The record requirement survives. You must still substantiate amount, time, place and business purpose — a contemporaneous log, not memory.
• It's an IRS floor, not your employer's. Company policies routinely require receipts below $75; the IRS rule doesn't override your expense policy.

"No receipt" never means "no record"

What replaces the receipt is a written record made at or near the time of the expense. A compliant no-receipt entry looks like: "Jul 14, 2026 — client parking, Downtown Garage, Chicago — $18 — meeting with Acme re: Q3 contract." An expense app entry, calendar note or log line all work. In an audit, a consistent contemporaneous log for small items is persuasive; a spreadsheet reconstructed the week before the audit is not. The broader documentation stack is covered in what receipts you need for an expense report.

Why you should often keep sub-$75 receipts anyway

1. Employer policies — most reimbursement systems want receipts above $25 or for all meals; see what an expense receipt policy should include.
2. State and other taxes — sales-tax questions, state audits and grant accounting can demand receipts the IRS wouldn't.
3. Cards make it free — with digital receipts and scanning apps, the marginal cost of keeping everything is near zero, and the audit posture is strictly better.
4. Patterns invite scrutiny — a return dense with $74 no-receipt entries looks engineered; auditors notice clustering just under thresholds.

The exceptions that catch people

• Lodging: always needs the folio (the itemized statement — see how to request a hotel folio).
• Charitable donations: cash gifts need a bank record or written acknowledgment at any amount — the $75 rule is about business expenses, not donations.
• Listed property and special categories have their own substantiation regimes.

The bottom line

Under $75 (except lodging), the IRS accepts a good record instead of a receipt — but only instead of, never in addition to nothing. Log small expenses the day they happen, keep receipts wherever they're free to keep, and reserve the rule for the genuinely receipt-less moments: parking meters, tips, street vendors. For the full retention picture, see which receipts to keep for taxes.