Receipt requirements · NY
New York receipt requirements
What a business issuing its own receipts in New York needs to show: the rate, whether tax has to be stated separately, which categories are exempt, and whether a written rent receipt is required.
Rates verified: 2026-08-05. Rates change — check your state Department of Revenue before relying on a figure for filing.
Sales tax at a glance
- State rate
- 4%
- Combined with local
- 4% – 9% combined
- Sourcing
- Destination-based — tax follows the buyer's address
Does tax have to be separately stated?
New York requires the tax to be stated separately on the receipt or invoice given to the customer, under Tax Law § 1132(a). Tax that is not separately stated is presumed to be part of the taxable receipt.
Whatever the rule, print it as its own line. Separately stating tax is what lets a reviewer isolate the pre-tax cost, and it is the mechanism most state statutes use to let a seller exclude the tax from gross receipts. The display conventions are covered here.
Exempt and specially rated categories
- Groceries exempt
- Clothing and footwear under $110 per item exempt from the state rate
- Prescription and non-prescription drugs exempt
- Newspapers and periodicals exempt
A basket that mixes an exempt item with a taxable one needs a per-line tax flag and separate taxable and non-taxable subtotals, or the tax line cannot be checked against the lines it came from.
Rent receipts in New York
A landlord must give a written receipt for rent paid in cash or by any instrument other than the tenant's personal check, showing the date, the amount, the identity of the premises and the period covered, and the signature and title of the person receiving the rent. In-person payments get the receipt immediately; indirect payments within fifteen days, and the landlord must keep a record of all cash rent receipts for at least three years.
Authority: N.Y. Real Prop. Law § 235-e.
The two fields landlords most often omit are the period the payment covers and the unit number. The full field list is here, and the statutory format is in the rent receipt spec.
Worth knowing in New York
New York's clothing exemption is per item and applies to the 4% state rate; localities decide separately whether to match it, so an $80 pair of shoes can be untaxed in one county and taxed at the local rate in the next. New York also has the most demanding rent receipt statute in the country, with a signature, a title and a three-year cash record requirement.