# Do I need to keep paper receipts after scanning them?

Applies to: United States · Updated 2026-09-30

Not always. The IRS accepts scanned records that meet its conditions and lets you destroy the paper once you have tested your system and put procedures in place to keep it compliant. Your state, a lender, insurer, grant funder, licensing body, contract party or court may set its own rule. Keep originals with legal effect of their own or tied to an audit, dispute or claim, keep the scans for the full retention period, and shred what you release.

## Who decides whether a scan is good enough?

Every party that may later ask for the record decides for itself; your own preference does not. The federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN) stops a record of a transaction in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce from being denied legal effect solely because it is electronic, but it also says it does not require any person, other than a government agency for records that are not its own contracts, to agree to use or accept electronic records. A lender or insurer is not obliged by that Act to take your scan.

Each requester's rule is set in a different place:

| Who may ask | Where their rule is set | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| The IRS | Rev. Proc. 97-22 and IRS Publication 583 | Whether your system meets the conditions below |
| A state tax or other state agency | That agency's regulations and bulletins | Its rule on imaged or electronic records |
| A lender, insurer or grant funder | The loan agreement, policy or grant terms | Whether originals are required or copies carry conditions |
| A licensing or program body | Its regulations and your license or program terms | Standards for electronic records or a paper requirement |
| A contract counterparty or a court | The contract; court rules and any order in a case | Original-form clauses and any open or likely dispute |

Regulators can tighten the terms. E-SIGN section 7004 lets a federal or state regulatory agency, in interpreting the Act's record-retention rule, specify performance standards to assure the accuracy, integrity and accessibility of records that must be retained. It also lets such an agency require a record to be kept in printed or paper form where there is a compelling governmental interest relating to law enforcement or national security and the requirement is essential to attaining that interest.

## What is the IRS's position on scanned receipts?

IRS Publication 583 says all requirements that apply to hard copy books and records also apply to electronic storage systems that maintain tax books and records, and that the original hard copy may be destroyed provided the system has been tested to establish that the records are being reproduced in compliance with IRS requirements and procedures are established to ensure continued compliance with all applicable rules and regulations; it adds that you still have the responsibility of retaining any other books and records that are required to be retained.

Rev. Proc. 97-22, the IRS's revenue procedure on electronic storage systems, sets out the detail. It says records kept in a system that complies with it constitute records under section 6001 of the Internal Revenue Code, and it permits destroying the original paper only after the business has completed its own testing of the system, establishing that records are being reproduced in compliance with all of the procedure's provisions, and has instituted procedures that ensure its continued compliance. The revenue procedure adds that using a third party, such as a service bureau, to provide the system does not relieve the business of these responsibilities.

## What must your scans and storage satisfy?

Rev. Proc. 97-22 requires all of the following of an electronic storage system:

- The transfer of paper records to electronic media is accurate and complete.
- Reasonable controls ensure the system's integrity, accuracy and reliability.
- Reasonable controls prevent and detect unauthorized creation of, addition to, alteration of, deletion of or deterioration of stored records.
- An inspection and quality assurance program is evidenced by regular evaluations, including periodic checks of stored records.
- A retrieval system includes an index, protected by reasonable controls against unauthorized creation, addition, alteration, deletion or deterioration of entries. An index functionally comparable to a reasonable paper filing system is enough.
- Stored records are cross-referenced to your books so there is an audit trail between the general ledger and the source documents.
- Every reproduction shows a high degree of legibility and readability, on screen and on paper.
- You keep complete descriptions of the system, including all procedures for its use, and of the index, and make them available to the IRS on request.
- At an examination or an IRS test of the system, you retrieve and reproduce stored records, including paper copies if requested, and provide the resources, such as hardware, software, personnel and documentation, needed to locate, retrieve, read and reproduce them.
- No agreement, such as a contract or license, limits or restricts the IRS's access to and use of the system wherever it is kept, including its files, indexes and software documentation.
- If you keep scans in more than one storage system, each system must meet every condition in this list.

Rev. Proc. 97-22 also treats stored records as destroyed if you stop maintaining the hardware and software the system needs, unless the records remain available to the IRS in conformity with the procedure, so keep whatever service holds them running for as long as the records must be kept. The revenue procedure leaves other practices to the business, listing among them back-up copies, an off-site storage location, and keeping the paper for records that are illegible or cannot be accurately or completely transferred.

## Which documents are not ordinary receipts?

Three kinds of document call for different answers:

| Kind of document | What makes it different | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| An ordinary purchase receipt | It only records a purchase | Release it only after every check below passes |
| A record in a class E-SIGN section 7003 excludes | E-SIGN's rule that an electronic record can satisfy a legal requirement for the original does not reach it, so the law that governs it decides whether a copy will do | Keep the original unless that law, or the court or party concerned, confirms a copy will do |
| A document a third party requires in original form | The agreement, policy or grant terms require it | Keep it as that party requires |

Where a law requires a record of a transaction in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce to be provided, available or retained in its original form, E-SIGN section 7001 treats that requirement as met by an electronic record that accurately reflects the information and remains accessible to everyone entitled to it by law, for the period required, in a form that can be accurately reproduced for later reference. E-SIGN section 7003 withholds that treatment from several classes of record, among them those governed by the Uniform Commercial Code as in effect in any state (other than sections 1–107 and 1–206 and Articles 2 and 2A), official court documents required in court proceedings, and documents required to accompany the transport or handling of hazardous or other dangerous materials. For these records E-SIGN does not make a scan satisfy a requirement for the original; whether the paper must be kept depends on the law that governs each.

A signed note or similar instrument the business holds is one such document. California Commercial Code section 3104, for example, defines a negotiable instrument as an unconditional promise or order to pay a fixed amount of money that meets further conditions. Section 3309 of that code lets a person who no longer has an instrument, for instance because it was destroyed, enforce it only if that section's conditions are met: the person must prove its terms and their right to enforce it, and the court may not enter judgment unless the person required to pay is adequately protected against loss from another person's claim to enforce it. Keep the original of any note the business holds.

## Does your state have its own rule?

It can. California's Regulation 1698 (Records), published by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, lets a business convert paper documents that the regulation requires it to keep into storage-only imaging media such as PDF files and discard the originals, but only if all of these conditions are met:

- Documentation of the conversion procedures is kept and made available on request, describing enough to follow an original through the conversion and the internal inspection and quality assurance procedures.
- Procedures exist to identify, process, store and preserve the stored documents and to keep them available for the period they must be retained.
- The business provides, on request, facilities and equipment for reading, locating and reproducing them.
- The documents show a high degree of legibility and readability on that equipment or on paper.
- The data is arranged so that any particular record can be located.
- There is no substantial evidence that the imaging medium lacks authenticity or integrity.

Treat another state's rule as no guide to yours. To find the rules where you operate, work through these steps:

1. List every state where you file returns, collect tax, hold a license or receive program money.
2. Open the IRS's State government websites page, which links to state websites with information on doing business in the state and taxation, and go to every state tax agency you file returns with or collect tax for, not just one; California's Regulation 1698, for one, covers only documents that regulation requires the business to keep.
3. Search each agency's regulations and bulletins for its records rule and for terms such as imaging, microfilm, electronic records and alternative storage, and write down every condition.
4. Repeat for every other state agency whose records you keep, such as a licensing board.
5. Where you find no rule on copies, or the rule is unclear, keep the paper and ask the agency in writing.

## Does an acceptable copy mean the record can be destroyed?

No. Whether a scan may stand in for the paper is a question of form; how long the record must exist is a separate question. Rev. Proc. 97-22 requires electronically stored records to be retained so long as their contents may become material in the administration of the Internal Revenue laws. IRS Publication 583 says not to discard records you no longer need for tax purposes until you check whether you must keep them longer for other purposes, noting that your insurance company or creditors may require you to keep them longer than the IRS does. Releasing the paper moves the obligation onto the scan; it does not end it, and how long each kind of record must be kept is answered separately.

## What changes if an audit, dispute or claim is open or likely?

It overrides the ordinary answer. While an examination, audit, lawsuit, insurance claim or other dispute touching a period is open or reasonably expected, keep every original from that period however good the scans are, and stop disposal for that period as soon as a notice, demand or claim arrives. In a court case that applies the Federal Rules of Evidence, a duplicate is admissible to the same extent as the original unless a genuine question is raised about the original's authenticity or the circumstances make it unfair to admit it. Program rules can extend the duty itself. Under 2 CFR 200.334, if litigation, a claim or an audit starts before that section's retention period ends, records of a federal award must be kept until all litigation, claims or audit findings involving them have been resolved and final action taken.

## What if the records support a loan, insurance claim or grant?

Read that party's own requirement before releasing any original behind the arrangement: the loan agreement, the policy and its claim instructions, or the grant terms. If the grant is a federal award that follows 2 CFR 200.336, the recipient or subrecipient may substitute electronic versions of original paper records through duplication or other electronic conversion, provided the procedures are subject to periodic quality control reviews; those reviews must ensure safeguards against alteration of records and that records remain in a format a computer system can read. Where an agreement says nothing about copies, keep the paper until the party confirms in writing that copies are acceptable.

## What should you confirm, in order, before any original is released?

Run these checks for each category of document, in this order:

1. **Check for a hold.** If an examination, audit, dispute, lawsuit or claim touching the period is open or reasonably expected, keep every original from that period and go no further for it.
2. **Name every party that may ask.** Work down the requester table above for each category.
3. **Read each party's requirement.** Set aside anything a party requires in original form, and anything whose agreement is silent until the party confirms copies in writing.
4. **Set aside records E-SIGN's copy rule does not reach.** Keep notes and similar instruments the business holds, and keep the original of any record in a class E-SIGN section 7003 excludes until the law that governs it confirms a copy will do.
5. **Check your state's rules.** Note each condition and confirm your system meets it.
6. **Check the IRS conditions.** Confirm your system meets each Rev. Proc. 97-22 condition listed above. In particular, confirm who can alter or delete stored images and index entries and how that would be detected, and set a schedule of periodic checks of stored records. Keep the system and index descriptions ready to give the IRS.
7. **Test the system independently.** The owner, or someone other than whoever scanned, retrieves a sample through the index from the stored copies alone and, for that sample, traces each to the ledger and restores it from a backup copy held apart from the main store (in a separate account or service, or offline), so that one deletion, lapse or compromise cannot remove both. Before any box's originals go, count pages against images for that box and confirm that every image in it is legible on screen and in print and has an index entry. Keep the paper for any document whose image has not been checked or fails; if you scanned everything yourself, still test from the stored copies alone, never from the scanner's working files.
8. **Put the procedures in writing.** Write down the procedures that keep the system compliant, confirm the storage terms do not restrict IRS access, and confirm the service, and the backup held apart from it, will be kept for as long as the records must be.
9. **Record the release.** Note what is being released, on what basis, when and by whom, and keep that note with the books.
10. **Dispose securely.** Shred, burn or pulverize the released originals before discarding them, as the FTC advises, and follow any disposal law in your state.

## How does one business's document set sort out?

A catering business's part-time bookkeeper has scanned several years of paper into a cloud storage service, and the owner has tested the copies herself, written the procedures and checked the state's rules before sorting the boxes:

| Category | Criterion applied | Release the paper? |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier, fuel and supply receipts from periods with nothing open | Ordinary receipts; IRS and state conditions met and tested; no party requires originals | Yes, after logging the release, by secure disposal |
| Card-terminal slips and signed customer invoices | Ordinary, and they carry customers' names and card details, so check any state customer-records disposal law too | Yes, by secure disposal only |
| Receipts for a van bought with an equipment loan | The loan agreement gives the lender access to purchase records and says nothing about copies | Not yet; keep until the lender confirms copies in writing |
| Receipts for a kitchen fit-out paid from a federal subaward | The award follows 2 CFR 200.336, but periodic quality control reviews have not started | Not yet; keep until the reviews run and the award terms are checked |
| Receipts for equipment in an open water-damage insurance claim | An open claim, which the policy governs | No; hold until the claim is closed |
| All records for the quarter named in a state sales tax audit notice | An open examination | No; hold every original for that quarter |
| A customer's signed note promising to pay an event balance | A signed promise to pay; in California, if it is a negotiable instrument, Commercial Code 3309 lets a person who no longer has it enforce it only if that section's conditions are met, including proof of its terms and adequate protection for the payer; elsewhere, check your own state's commercial code | No; keep the original |

## How should released originals be disposed of?

The FTC warns that leaving credit card receipts or papers with personally identifying information in a dumpster facilitates fraud. Its guide for business says to dispose of paper records by shredding, burning or pulverizing them before discarding, and to make sure employees who work from home follow the same procedures; the FTC adds that a business using consumer credit reports for a business purpose may be subject to its Disposal Rule. States can add duties of their own. To find yours, search your state's code for a customer-records or records-disposal statute; California's sits in its Civil Code, not in its tax regulations. California Civil Code section 1798.81, for example, requires a business to take all reasonable steps to dispose of, or arrange for the disposal of, customer records within its custody or control containing personal information when the records are no longer to be retained, by shredding, erasing or otherwise modifying the personal information to make it unreadable or undecipherable through any means. Check your own state's law before disposal, and destroy only the batches your release record lists.

This guide is general information, not tax or legal advice. Confirm with a qualified professional before acting.

## Sources

1. U.S. Government Publishing Office — *15 U.S.C. §7001, General rule of validity (Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act)*, United States Code, 2023 Edition. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title15/html/USCODE-2023-title15-chap96-subchapI-sec7001.htm
2. U.S. Government Publishing Office — *15 U.S.C. §7004, Applicability to Federal and State governments*, United States Code, 2023 Edition. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title15/html/USCODE-2023-title15-chap96-subchapI-sec7004.htm
3. Internal Revenue Service — *Rev. Proc. 97-22*, undated. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/rp-97-22.pdf
4. Internal Revenue Service — *Publication 583, Starting a Business and Keeping Records*, Rev. December 2024. https://www.irs.gov/publications/p583
5. U.S. Government Publishing Office — *15 U.S.C. §7003, Specific exceptions*, United States Code, 2023 Edition. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title15/html/USCODE-2023-title15-chap96-subchapI-sec7003.htm
6. California Legislative Information — *California Commercial Code section 3104*, undated. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=COM&sectionNum=3104
7. California Legislative Information — *California Commercial Code section 3309*, added by Stats. 1992, Ch. 914, Sec. 6, effective January 1, 1993. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=COM&sectionNum=3309
8. California Department of Tax and Fee Administration — *Regulation 1698. Records*, amended March 29, 2016, effective October 1, 2016. https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/lawguides/vol1/sutr/1698.html
9. Internal Revenue Service — *State government websites*, page last reviewed or updated 10-Oct-2025. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/state-government-websites
10. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School — *Federal Rules of Evidence, Rule 1003. Admissibility of Duplicates*, undated. https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/rule_1003
11. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School — *2 CFR § 200.334 Record retention requirements*, undated. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/2/200.334
12. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School — *2 CFR § 200.336 Methods for collection, transmission, and storage of information*, undated. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/2/200.336
13. Federal Trade Commission — *Protecting Personal Information: A Guide for Business*, October 2016. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/protecting-personal-information-guide-business
14. California Legislative Information — *California Civil Code section 1798.81*, amended by Stats. 2009, Ch. 134, Sec. 2, effective January 1, 2010. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=1798.81

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