How to Correct, Cancel or Replace a Donation Receipt

A donor emails to say the receipt has the wrong address on it, or that it never arrived, or that the amount looks wrong. What you do next depends on one question that has nothing to do with the size of the error: has the receipt already been issued to the donor, or is it still on your desk? The two situations follow different rules, and the serial number is handled differently in each. This guide covers both, plus how to fix errors on pre-printed stock and what your records have to show afterwards.

Which situation are you in?

Three, and the rules differ. Identify which one before doing anything.

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The dividing line is whether the document reached the donor. Once it has, there is a receipt in circulation that has to be accounted for, and the replacement has to point at it. Where it never left your office, there is nothing in circulation and the receipt is simply cancelled.

There is a fourth situation that is not a correction at all. Where a receipt should never have been issued, because the transaction was not a gift or your charity had no authority to issue it, that is a different problem and the section below on your books covers it.

How do you replace a receipt that has already been issued?

Issue a replacement that carries its own serial number, shows the serial number of the original, and states that it replaces the original. Then mark your copy of the original as cancelled and keep it.

Those three elements come straight from the regulations. A receipt issued to replace a receipt previously issued has to show clearly that it replaces the original and, in addition to its own serial number, show the serial number of the receipt originally issued.

That last point is worth reading twice, because it is commonly stated the other way round. The replacement does not reuse the original's number. It has both: its own number, drawn in sequence like any other receipt, and a reference to the number it replaces.

CRA's guidance says the same thing in plainer language. A replacement receipt must include all the required information, the serial number of the original receipt, and a statement that it replaces the original receipt, and the charity should keep its copy of the original and mark "cancelled" on it.

The wording on the replacement should leave nothing ambiguous. A line reading that this receipt cancels and replaces receipt number, followed by the original number, does the job.

What is a spoiled receipt?

A receipt form that was prepared incorrectly and never issued, and the regulations define when a form counts as spoiled. It is not a judgment call.

A receipt form is deemed spoiled where any of four things is entered incorrectly or illegibly: the date the gift was received, the amount of the gift in the case of a cash gift, the description and amount of any advantage, or the eligible amount of the gift. That is a defined list.

The handling is different from a replacement. A spoiled form is marked "cancelled" and retained, together with its duplicate, as part of your records. Both copies stay in the file.

Then prepare a new receipt in the ordinary way, with its own serial number. Because the spoiled one never reached the donor, the new receipt does not have to reference it. Your records show the cancelled pair and the new receipt.

Never destroy a spoiled form. The retained pair is what explains a gap in your serial number sequence, and an unexplained gap is exactly the kind of thing a review asks about.

How do you fix errors on pre-printed receipt stock?

Cross out the error, add the correct information, and make the change on both copies. This covers a change of name, address or registration number where you still hold usable stock.

CRA's recommended approach is to cross out the errors, add the correct information using a stamp where possible, and make the changes on both the donor's copy and the duplicate. The point of doing both is that your file copy has to match what the donor received.

Consistency matters more than neatness here. Every receipt issued from corrected stock should be corrected the same way, so a reviewer looking at twenty of them sees one pattern rather than twenty decisions.

Order new stock rather than running corrected forms indefinitely. Correcting stock is a bridge, not a system, and a charity still crossing out a registration number two years after it changed has a different problem.

Charities producing receipts from software rather than pre-printed forms should update the template and then check a sample of output, since the version of the template in use is not always the version somebody edited. Our page of official donation receipt examples shows what the finished document should contain.

What changes in your books when a receipt changes?

Sometimes nothing, sometimes the revenue split, and the receipt register always changes. Work out which before posting anything.

A straight replacement for a lost receipt changes no amount. The gift was received, the value is unchanged, and nothing in the ledger moves. Only the receipt register is updated to show the original as cancelled and the replacement as issued.

A correction to the eligible amount needs a second look rather than an automatic entry. Where the change comes from an advantage that was misvalued, the split between gift revenue and the advantage moves and the ledger follows. Where it comes from a receipting rule that does not touch the accounting value, such as the deemed fair market value rule, the ledger figure may be unchanged and only the reconciliation between the two moves. Reassess the ledger-to-receipt reconciliation in either case, and correct with a dated entry referencing both receipt numbers where an entry is needed.

A receipt that should never have been issued is the serious case. Cancel it, tell the donor promptly so they can deal with any claim already made, and correct your records. Never reissue a receipt in a different name to fix this, and never issue a receipt under another organisation's registration number for a gift that organisation did not receive.

All of it feeds the annual return, since your receipted gift totals come from the receipt register. Where you record donations in accounting software, our guide to recording charitable donations covers keeping the register and the ledger aligned, and ongoing bookkeeping support should keep the two reconciled month to month rather than at filing.

How long do you keep the cancelled copies?

Cancelled and reissued receipts run on the cancellation or reissue year, not automatically on the donation year. This is the retention rule charities get wrong.

CRA sets two periods for receipts. Copies of official donation receipts are kept for two years from the end of the calendar year in which you received the donations. Where you cancelled or reissued receipts, those records are kept for two years after the end of the calendar year in which the receipts were cancelled or reissued. A 2025 donation whose receipt you reissue in 2027 therefore has a retention clock running from the end of 2027 rather than the end of 2025. Where the cancellation or reissue happens in the donation year itself, the two dates coincide. File the cancelled original with its replacement so the pair moves together.

The receipt register is a different kind of record and runs longer. A general ledger or other book of final entry containing summaries of year-to-year transactions, and the accounts needed to verify the entries, is kept for six years from the end of the fiscal year it covers. So are financial statements, source documents and your annual returns, and six years from the late-filing date where a return went in late.

Electronic records and properly created scanned images are acceptable, provided proper imaging practices are followed and documented. Records must be kept at the Canadian address CRA has on file, and records held outside Canada but merely accessible electronically from Canada do not meet that requirement.

To destroy records before the period has run, you need the Minister's written permission, requested on Form T137. Do not shorten a retention period by decision. Questions about receipting mechanics are the kind we answer on our FAQ page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the replacement receipt use the original's serial number?

No. It carries its own serial number and, in addition, shows the serial number of the original receipt, along with a statement that it replaces the original. Reusing the original number would put one number on two receipts, which is what the rule is designed to prevent.

A donor lost their receipt. Do we have to replace it?

You can, and doing so is normal practice. Issue a replacement carrying its own number and referencing the original, and mark your copy of the original as cancelled.

We caught an error before mailing. What now?

That is a spoiled receipt. Mark both copies "cancelled," keep them in your records, and prepare a new receipt with its own serial number. The new one does not need to reference the cancelled pair.

Can we just void a receipt and reuse the number?

No. Serial numbers are not reused. The cancelled form stays in your records with its number, and the next receipt takes the next number in the sequence.

The donor wants the receipt reissued in their spouse's name. Can we do that?

Not as a correction. A receipt is issued to the person who made the gift, and reissuing it to someone else is not a clerical fix. If the original identified the wrong donor as a matter of fact, that is a different question and one to resolve carefully before issuing anything.

How long do we keep cancelled receipts?

Two years after the end of the calendar year in which the receipt was cancelled or reissued, which may produce a later date than the period running from the year the donation was received, and produces the same date where both fall in the same year. Keep the cancelled original filed with its replacement so both are held to the later date. The receipt register itself is a summary record and is kept for six years.

This article covers correcting and replacing official donation receipts as at September 2026. What must appear on a receipt, and how to calculate the eligible amount where a donor received an advantage, are covered separately. Where a receipt was issued for something that was not a gift, take advice before acting, since the consequences reach beyond the receipt itself.