3. Some expenses are reimbursed by your company, school, church, etc. My boss may send me on a business trip and ask me to find a good deal on air fare. Once I buy the ticket, I save the receipt and give it to the boss. He will give me my money back. I cannot just tell my boss, "Oh, the ticket cost $300." He may suspect that it only cost $200 and I want to keep $100 for myself. A receipt is PROOF that I paid the amount I said I paid. 4. It helps to solve disputes when you make many payments. I may buy a car and agree to pay the bank $400/month for five years. If the bank sends me a notice saying that I did not pay last months payment, I can show them the "payment slip" to prove that I did pay and that they received the money. Banks use computers, and computers sometimes have errors. If I save my receipts, I can help resolve questions like this. Especially with Internet purchases and electronic receipts -- SAVE THEM! And remember to back up your files often to a place outside your main computer. If your computer dies, all of your "receipts" are gone.

When you pay for something in the United States and many other countries, the seller gives you a piece of paper (or electronic file) that shows the details of the purchase. When you make one payment, this is called a "receipt". The root word is "receive". The receipt is PROOF that you received the item or service from the merchant. The receipt is also PROOF that you paid a certain amount for it. When you make several payments over time, we usually call the receipt a "payment slip" or simply, a "payment". It is a good idea to "save your payment (slips)" or "save your receipts" for several reasons: 1. It allows you to return something that does not work or does not meet expectations. In the United States, you can return merchandise that is faulty or does not meet expectation, if you bring the receipt that proves the amount, the store, and the date it was purchased. Some stores will give you a new item. Some stores only give "store credit" (which means you can choose something ELSE from their store, but they will not give you cash). 2. Receipts prove that you paid for certain items claimed on taxes. In the United States, you pay less taxes if you had to buy things for your business, for children, etc. If I tell the government that I paid $1,000 for printer paper, I need to have the receipt ("save the receipt") to PROVE that I really did. The government (IRS) may ask me to prove this. If I don't have the receipt, I will owe the money to the government. [cont. below]