Is a photo of the receipt accepted?

Yes. For the CRA, an image is one of the accepted forms of record. Revenu Québec asks that electronic documents stay readable, on the same medium, for the whole retention period, and that their integrity is protected.

Does a small receipt really count for your taxes?

Q: Is a card statement enough instead of the receipt?

Revenu Québec lists credit card statements among the records to keep, but it also tells you to always ask for a receipt or other supporting document. The statement shows that you paid, the receipt shows what you bought. Keep both when you can.

The short answer

Yes, a small receipt counts. As a rule, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and Revenu Québec let you deduct any reasonable expense you incur to earn business income. The rule sets no minimum amount. A $4 parking meter follows the same principle as a laptop, except the small amount is far easier to lose.

That is exactly where the problem starts. A big invoice gets filed. A parking stub goes into a wallet, then into the trash.

Three small expenses that are deductible

Parking. The CRA lets you deduct the full amount of parking fees related to your business activities, even when your vehicle is also used for personal driving. Revenu Québec adds one exception. Parking at your home is a personal expense, unless your home is the main place where you carry on your business.

Office supplies. Pens, paper, paper clips, stationery and stamps are deductible as supplies. A calculator, a filing cabinet or a chair, on the other hand, are capital items, which follow different rules.

Bank fees. Bank charges you pay to run your business are deductible too. They come out every month, often without anyone noticing.

One limit applies to all of it. Personal expenses are not deductible. If an expense serves both work and personal life, only the business share counts, based on a reasonable split.

Why it adds up

Take a simple example. A $4 parking meter, twice a week, for 48 weeks, is $384 in a year. Add supplies and twelve months of bank fees, and what looked negligible becomes a real amount. Every lost receipt is a deduction leaking away.

The receipt is your proof

The law requires you to keep records of all your transactions to support your income and expense claims. Revenu Québec puts it simply. Always ask for a receipt or other supporting document when you incur a business expense.

As a rule, those records are kept for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to. A photo works. The CRA counts an image as a record, and Revenu Québec asks that electronic documents stay readable for that whole period.

What we do

Ask for the receipt, snap a photo and upload it. We file it under the right category, keep only the business share when an expense is mixed, and your file stays ready if the CRA or Revenu Québec has questions. You handle the receipt, we handle the rest.