I was sent to the store by an employer. While at the register I was informed by the merchant that my employer's particular type of payment was not accepted. I paid for the purchase with my own cash.
When I got to the office, I did not explain myself well, but my first inclination was that I should hold the receipt for my tax purposes and give the employer a hand-written receipt for their tax purposes. But my employer told me they would keep the store receipt and that I would get the money in my paycheck or separate check (I forget which). I did not have time to think about it, and I did not object.
Now that I thought about it, I don't know standard business procedure for receiving expense reimbursements with regards to taxes. My general attitude is that all funds that I receive are seen by the IRS as income until I prove otherwise (usually via a receipt).
I would like to know the common or standard business procedures for employee expense reimbursement. I will be reieving a check from the employer with a row on the check stub for "expense reimbursement" or similar. Is this check stub sufficient proof for the IRS? The check stub would be the most ideal solution because it does not require me to maintain receipts, however I am not confident that it will.
The dollar amount is trivial, but I feel that I should know how to deal with this if I should find myself in a similar situation.
Edit: Suppose the amount had been $10,001. How does that effect proper record keeping from an employee's perspective. What is standard book-keeping procedure?