A fake receipt used to take effort: a doctored scan, a template from a receipt-maker site. Image tools can now produce a convincing one in seconds, crumpled paper and all. The good news is that a forged receipt still has to agree with facts that live outside the image: the store, the tax rules, the card statement. That's where it usually breaks.
Check the arithmetic
Add the line items and compare them with the subtotal, then apply the tax rates and compare with the total. Generated and edited receipts often get one of these wrong: items that don't sum, a tax amount that doesn't match any rate, or a total that's been changed while the lines above it weren't.
Check the tax against the place
The tax on a receipt has to match where the sale happened. A Québec receipt shows GST at 5% and QST at 9.975% on separate lines. An Ontario receipt shows HST at 13%. Nova Scotia has charged 14% HST since April 1, 2025. A receipt from a Montréal restaurant with a single 13% tax line, or a US receipt with a GST line, is a red flag.
Check the registration number
In Canada, a receipt of $100 or more must show the seller's GST/HST registration number to support an input tax credit, and the format is fixed: nine digits, then RT and four more digits, like 123456789 RT0001. A QST number is ten digits, then TQ and four digits. Both can be checked against the official registries: the CRA's GST/HST Registry confirms whether a business was registered on the date of the transaction, and Revenu Québec has a service to validate a QST registration number. A number that doesn't validate, or belongs to a different business, settles the question.
Check the store
Compare the address, phone number and store name with the merchant's real location. Look at the date and time against the store's opening hours, and at the receipt number: two receipts from the same store on different days with the same number, or numbers that don't follow the store's format, deserve a second look.
Match it to the card
The strongest check is the one outside the receipt. A real card purchase leaves a transaction with the same merchant, date and amount, and the last four digits printed on the receipt should match the card that paid. A receipt with no matching transaction, or a transaction whose amount differs from the receipt, is the clearest sign of a fabricated or inflated claim.
Patterns that show up in expense claims
- Round totals, especially just under an approval limit.
- The same receipt submitted twice, sometimes by two people or as a photo and a PDF.
- A tip added on a receipt where the card was charged a lower amount.
- Receipts dated on weekends or holidays for a business that was closed.
- Fonts, spacing or alignment that change partway down the receipt.
None of these proves fraud on its own. They're reasons to check the receipt against the card statement and the merchant before approving it. For the wider picture, see expense fraud.
Receipts that can't be edited
The surest way to stop fake receipts is to stop relying on images. With digital receipts, stores that use Smartbills send the itemized receipt when you pay. There's no image to edit and the receipt is already matched to the card purchase. Supplier invoices go through accounts payable, which checks for duplicates on vendor, reference and amount before an invoice reaches an approver. And when a paper receipt has to be photographed, the Smartbills app reads each tax line and its registration number. The checks above then start from the data instead of from someone's eyes.