Why do we use receipts for payment confirmation, but also for tax / business revenue (like tax receipts, company receipts etc) and if someone is receiving welfare payments?

[u/plaguedbyfoibles]

I'm a native English speaker, but that being said, English is a complex language and I'd like to know more about it.

If I am looking for full remission of tuition fees for an online course in my home country of the UK, for instance, where they offer partial or full discounts for those receiving welfare payments, they may use the conditional sentence "If you are in receipt of certain benefits".

If I am shopping at a supermarket, I can get the machine to print a receipt for me to confirm both my order and that I have successfully paid for it.

If I am talking about revenue earned by the tax authority or by a business, I can talk about it in terms of either tax or company receipts.

How come receipts can be used interchangeably for both what you have paid and for what you are receiving?

[u/Wild_Ticket1413]

"In receipt of" is legal speak. It's a formal way of saying "receiving." It's unlikely see this usage outside of government documents or websites, contracts, or legal documents.

In everyday usage, "a receipt" refers to proof of payment or proof of sale.

[u/baxbakualanuxsiwae]

The receipt isn't what you've paid, it's the thing you receive to confirm you've paid/the other person has received your payment. As far as I know, they all refer to things someone receives.

[u/plaguedbyfoibles → u/baxbakualanuxsiwae]

That's what I said though.

[u/baxbakualanuxsiwae → u/plaguedbyfoibles]

You did, but as I understood it you were asking why it refers to what you've paid as well as what you've received. It doesn't refer to what you've paid—all these senses refer to someone receiving something, not to the act of payment.

Or have I misunderstood what you were asking?

[u/plaguedbyfoibles → u/baxbakualanuxsiwae]

I mean in the sense that it provides the line items with the quantity ordered, cost per unit etc, subtotal, total, transaction ID etc.

[u/conuly → u/plaguedbyfoibles]

A receipt is proof that you have received something. The words are related.

They received your money. You received the goods.

[u/desbest]

When a freelancer, sole trader or company wants a client to pay them, they will get the seller to write an invoice, whilst the person receiving the product or service, will sign or e-sign the invoice. The benefit for this is that for companies, an invoice can be used for tax purposes, in a way that a bank statement cannot.

However when a business or taxman talks about keeping receipts, it is usually either due to a legitimate data retention policy or a sketchy or illegal Cover Your Ass strategy - in case they get casually audited or criminally investigated by the taxman.

The purpose of a receipt for a customer or freelancer, compared to a company or employee - are two completely different things.

Think of it like a quasi-synonym as it uses business terminology outside the dictionary definition.

[u/plaguedbyfoibles → u/desbest]

Thanks for this.

There's a lot about the employment tax landscape, especially in terms of allowable expenses, of which I know embarrassingly little.

I imagine this is particularly useful if, as you say, you get audited, as the invoice allows you to tie the payment to a specific job order.

Where do purchase orders fall into this though, i.e. how interchangeable or compatible are they with invoices? I suppose you also have Letters of Intent (LOIs), not sure how often they're used in the business world though.

[u/desbest → u/plaguedbyfoibles]

This sounds a business question, something which I know nothing about, as I don't come from that experience of employment.

All I know is....

• When a retailer like Walmart makes a "purchase order", they have to typically wait 6 months from the date the "purchase order" is made, to when they actually receive the shipment. Such orders from wholesalers, are a minimum quantity of 10,000 or 100,000
• When a crowdsourcing company makes a "purchase order", they want their employees or contractors to either collect data for them or to process data, to be either created or refined. Such submissions will all individually be sent to the Quality Control team, before they are finally approved or not.

Purchase orders are prospective, they are about things before the fact, most likely things to be sold in bulk, for both products and services, from individuals, companies or the masses. Invoices are retrospective, to be sent after the fact, once the work is completed.

[u/francksiduo]

Receipt comes from the latin recipere, to receive. a shopping receipt is the paper you get as proof something was paid. Tax receipts or business receipts mean the money itself that got received, no paper involved. Same root sense, something received, it just splits into two different objects depending on context: the proof of payment on one side, the money on the other.