How Long to Keep Receipts for Tax in Australia (ATO Rules, 2026)

Every July, the same panic: a shoebox (or a camera roll) full of faded receipts, and a tax return due by 31 October. If you claim work-related expenses in Australia, the ATO expects you to prove them, and the rules about what counts as proof are more specific than most people think.

Here is a plain-English guide to what the ATO actually requires, how long you need to keep receipts, and how to set yourself up so next tax time takes minutes instead of a weekend.

How long do you need to keep receipts?

Five years, generally, counted from the date you lodge the tax return the records relate to. If the ATO reviews or audits a return, you need to be able to produce the evidence behind every claim. No records usually means no deduction, and in an audit it can mean repaying the claim plus penalties.

That is why the shoebox fails. Thermal paper receipts, the shiny kind almost every shop prints, routinely fade to blank well within five years. A receipt you cannot read is a receipt you do not have.

Digital copies are fine: the ATO says so

You do not need to keep the paper. The ATO accepts electronic records as long as they are a true and clear copy of the original. A photo of a receipt taken on your phone satisfies this, provided you can still read the key details:

• the supplier or merchant name
• the amount of the expense
• the nature of the goods or services
• the date the expense was incurred
• the date of the document

A bank or card statement does not cover that list on its own. A statement line shows that money left your account, when and to whom. It does not show what you bought, or how much of it was for work, so it supports a receipt rather than replacing one.

The practical takeaway: photograph every receipt the day you get it, before it fades, and keep the images somewhere organised and backed up.

The thresholds people mix up

$300 total work-related expenses. If your total claim for work-related expenses is $300 or less, you do not need written evidence, but you still must be able to show how you calculated the claim, and the expenses must actually have been incurred. The moment your total goes over $300, you need records for all of it, not just the amount above $300.

Small expenses ($10 or less). For expenses of $10 or less, up to a total of $200, a diary-style record you make yourself (what, when, how much, who) can stand in for a receipt.

Work-use percentage. For anything used partly for work and partly privately, such as a phone, internet or a laptop, you can only claim the work-related portion, and you need a reasonable basis for the split, for example a four-week representative diary.

A system that actually survives to October

The failure mode is never “I didn’t know I could claim that.” It is “I know I paid for it, but I can’t find the receipt.” A workable system needs three properties:

• Capture at the moment of purchase. If it waits for the weekend, it does not happen.
• Amount, merchant and date recorded as data, not just an image you will have to re-type in July.
• One export at tax time. Everything for the financial year, in a form you can reference when lodging through myTax, or hand to your accountant.

You can build this with a spreadsheet and a folder of photos. The discipline is the hard part, which is exactly what an app should automate.