Escape the year

A year of receipts, one day at a time

The game gives the receipt 365 rings and a deadline. Your receipts get the same deal.

In the US, individual federal tax returns are generally due in mid-April. By then, every receipt that supports your return for the year before needs to be somewhere you can find it. And it doesn’t end there: the IRS generally expects records to be kept for three years after you file, longer in some situations. Here’s how long to keep receipts, rule by rule.

Trying to gather a whole year in April feels a lot like the start of the game: hundreds of rings and very few gaps. Doing a little each day is what gets you out.

How to keep up all year

1. Snap each receipt the day you get it. Most receipts are thermal paper and fade. A photo taken at the counter is the copy that lasts. Here’s why receipts fade.
2. Add a word about why. The receipt shows what you bought, never what it was for. “Deck repair, Jensen job” takes five seconds now.
3. Keep everything in one place, by month. Month matches your bank statements, so checking takes minutes.
4. Check each month against your statement. Chase anything missing while you still remember it. The full routine is in how to keep track of receipts all year.

Not sure which receipts you even need? Start with do you need receipts for taxes, which checks eight common myths against IRS guidance.

This is general record-keeping information, not tax advice. Your tax professional can tell you what your situation needs.

How to play Escape the Year

• A receipt bounces inside 365 rings, one for every day of the year. Every ring has a gap, and the rings slowly turn.
• When the receipt slips through a gap, that day breaks and the counter drops. When gaps line up, it can break several days in a row.
• The tax-day clock gives it 50 seconds. Break all 365 rings before it runs out and the receipt escapes.
• Watch lets it run on its own. Help it gives you three nudges: tap anywhere and the receipt is pushed toward your finger.
• Every bounce plays the next note of In the Hall of the Mountain King. Every broken day rings a little higher.

Every run is random. In our test runs, about half escaped before tax day.

Questions

Is every run different?

Yes. The starting angle, speed and the way the rings turn change every time, so nobody knows how a run will end, including us.

Can the receipt always escape?

No. Without help, roughly half of the runs make it. The ones that do usually finish close to the deadline. Your three nudges can change the result if you time them for when a gap is lined up.

When is tax day?

For most individual US federal returns, the due date is in mid-April, and it moves when it falls on a weekend or holiday. Check IRS.gov for the current year’s date.

Does ReceiptNest help with this?

Yes. Snap a paper receipt or forward an email receipt, add a quick note, and ReceiptNest organizes it by month. Export a PDF or CSV for your accountant at tax time. See how the receipt organizer works.

Are there other games?

Yes: Shoebox Sort, Guess the Charge and Before It Fades. All free, no signup.

Sources and credits

• IRS, How long should I keep records?
• IRS, Publication 583, Starting a Business and Keeping Records
• Music: In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg (public domain). Orchestral sounds rendered with the MuseScore General soundfont (MIT license).