Do faded receipts still count?

A receipt has to be readable to serve as proof. Thermal receipts fade to blank within months, so photograph them early; a blank receipt will not support a deduction.

Can I throw out the paper after taking a photo?

The CRA and Revenu Québec accept electronic records, so a clear and complete digital copy is generally enough. Keep it accessible for six years.

The shoebox of receipts is costing you more than you think

The shoebox tax

Everyone knows the shoebox: a year of crumpled receipts stuffed in a drawer, dealt with in a panic right before the filing deadline. It feels free. It is not. It costs you three ways:

Missed deductions. Receipts that got lost, faded, or forgotten are money you spent and were entitled to claim, but never did.
Faded proof. Most store and gas receipts are thermal, and thermal fades to blank within months. A blank receipt is not evidence.
The year-end scramble. Reconstructing twelve months of spending in one sitting is slow, stressful, and where errors creep in.

What "organized" actually means

Good records are not about neatness for its own sake. They are about being able to answer, for any expense: what was it, when, how much, and was it for the business. Captured as you go, that is a two-second habit. Reconstructed at year-end, it is a lost weekend.

The simple fix

Capture each receipt the moment you get it, before it can fade or vanish, and keep it somewhere it is organized by default. That is the whole idea behind uploading it to us: you send it, we sort it, and it is kept for the six years the CRA and Revenu Québec require.

You do not even need the paper

The CRA and Revenu Québec accept electronic records, so a clear photo of a receipt is enough on its own. Once you have a readable digital copy, the original can go. The shoebox was never the point; having your proof, organized and safe, is.