The Joy of Keeping Receipts

I love hardcopy receipts. I believe a hardcopy or printable receipt should be mandatory for every financial transaction, whether at Walmart or the bank. It goes without saying that retail stores must give you a printed receipt. It's useful and critical for a number of reasons. Website sales companies are still catching up to this idea and leave a lot of room for improvement.

1. Returns. Need to return a gift, or broken item, or merely something you don't like? Than take it back to the store, with your receipt, for a refund or exchange. Although I love Kohl's, their emphasis on convenience has gone to far when you can return an item without a receipt. Bad business model. Great way to lose money. Not everyone is trustworthy -- yet. 

My Mom gave me a bright red Keurig coffee maker from Kohl's, no receipt, for my birthday. Janet and I took it into the store near us, found a white Keurig machine, same everything, took both machines thru the checkout and walked out with the white one -- no questions asked. Not one. This is a bonanza for thieves and criminals. Worst case? I should have gotten Mom's receipt and taken it back. Or, any confusion could have been avoided with a gift receipt -- that's why they give one when asked.

2. Bank receipts. I love the new ATM's where you submit your checks or cash for deposit, and get a printed receipt with pictures of the checks on them. Marvelous! It beats filling out a deposit slip and waiting in line for a cashier who has to check everything three times. In fact, I've  loved ATMs, ever since I first started using them at Corestates bank in center-city Trenton in the '80s. And I always selected "Yes" for "Print a receipt?" as if, as if, there should be a choice. The receipt should print automatically. Many times I found someone's receipt sitting near the machine. Stupid. A receipt is physical proof. It will hold up in a dispute or court of law, when necessary. Why give up that protection?

And no matter where I am, being charged a fee for making a deposit, or, withdrawing funds from any ATM, should be forbidden. An ATM must cost a fraction of what a full time teller costs, except for the machine and maintenance costs. What overhead is there? Ten cents per transaction, maybe? The machine itself is overhead. The cost of accepting or disbursing funds and printing a small receipt is the Cost of Doing Business, or the Cost of Goods Sold. I don't have to pay a transaction fee at my AMC theatre every Saturday when I see an action or sci-fi flick, or anywhere else (unless online -- that's not a scam because that convenience is worth something, even tho it could be priced as part of the item cost), so why do I at the ATM? Ah, yes, that pesky "convenience factor."

3. Sales Tax receipts. One day the state Sales tax you pay will be deductible on your income tax. As far as I've researched its not now. It should be. It must become so. Just like the Son of Liberty who threw a barrel of tea into Boston Harbor in 1773, I'm appalled we have double and triple taxation and we haven't changed it yet. 

I do think, in fact I know, its not fair to use my hard-gained income to pay NJ sales taxes on most goods and services, and yet not be able to deduct those payments from my NJ Annual Income Tax return! How do we stand for this? The same goes for the Use Tax, but that's a stupid tax and should be abolished outright. If the legislature wants to keep it on companies who make a lot of out-of-state purchases, then that makes sense. But don't tax me extra because I buy my cigarettes in Pennsylvania!

4. Contributions-in-kind. Did you know if you donate something of value, any value, to your church or non-profit organization, they have to give you a receipt? Some items, like an expensive ring for example, would have to be appraised if you want to deduct full value on your income tax as a charitable contribution. This also begs the question, when you donate items to your local church for their yard sale or as a bingo gift, you better be getting a receipt from them. But, big but, the org doesn't have to put a value in dollars on your receipt unless you can prove its cost/price, and having a receipt from the original seller to you is a good way to get that. 

5. Charitable receipts from non-profits. We should all know these receipts are invaluable as deductions on our annual federal income tax, and apparently there's no limit to how much in contributions you can deduct. But you have to itemize on your tax return.

As the Treasurer of our local church, giving out hundreds of written receipts every year, its an absolute must to keep good records. Not only good records, but duplicate receipts as well. I've helped contributors many times for their annual returns.

And this brings us to the present burning controversy over 501c eligible non-profits. Cemetery Companies? Any organization doing anything political? Absolutely no 501c status is deserved in my opinion. And there's a list of thousands of orgs that must be tested to pass the exempt requirements, many, in my opinion, with dubious social or community benefits. 

The legitimate non-profit orgs, for example the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, like most non-profits, aim toward a social or community good, basically promoting education on the issue. You may call this political because you believe nuclear weapons are okay (Iran). So opposing views should be encouraged and public hearings held when orgs seek 501c status. And in order to retain it. The stated mission of the International Physicians is to free the world of threats by nuclear weapons (promoting disarmament), and preventing war. Now I consider those goals to be socially commendable and worthy of non-taxation. But the IRS reviews hundreds and thousands of orgs to see if they meet the 501c test: The organization must have an "exempt purpose," cannot be political, and profits cannot inure to individuals, among other requirements.

So what's the current controversy about Tea Party orgs all about? You mean they're not political? Does it really matter if they're only 10% political, so therefore they should get exempt status? 

Sometimes these issues aren't as clouded as the media outlets and orgs themselves make them out to be. I mean, they and congressional leaders are fighting and bombastic about all of this, so 501c status must be important, right? Doesn't that mean orgs seeking 501c should be thoroughly scrutinized and tested?

So it all comes back to receipts. Hold on to your receipts, they may be more valuable than you realize.

By Rodney Richards, NJ