How to download past phone and internet bills for expenses and taxes

Phone and internet bills are the receipts people most often discover they don't have. Paperless billing sends an email every month, but that email usually just says a bill is ready and links to your account. The bill itself stays on the carrier's site, and only for a limited time. Here's where Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Xfinity keep past bills, how far back they go, and how to deal with a plan that's partly business.

Short answer Sign in to your account on the carrier's website or app and open the bill history. Each past bill downloads as a PDF. Verizon: Bill overview, then Billing history and Review History (up to 24 months). AT&T: open your bill online and choose Download or View/Print for a PDF. T-Mobile: in T-Life, Account, then View my bills and Past bills (up to 18 months). Xfinity: Bill history, then pick a bill (up to 24 months). Download them before they age out.

The paperless email isn't the bill

With paperless billing, the monthly email is a notice, not a copy of the bill. Xfinity's email gives the amount due, the due date and a link to view the bill. AT&T's Bill Ready Notice gives the balance, the due date and a link to sign in. For your records, the PDF is what counts. It shows the billing period, every charge, taxes and fees, and the account it belongs to.

The other limit is time. Verizon, T-Mobile and Xfinity keep 18 to 24 months online, and AT&T doesn't publish a firm figure for bills. If you only gather receipts at tax time, the early months of last year may already be close to the cutoff. Downloading each bill when the email arrives avoids that.

Verizon

Where Verizon sends bills

Verizon's paper-free billing sends an email or text notice when a new bill is ready. You switch to paper-free billing in My Verizon. For mobile accounts, Verizon says the new bill shows up on the Bill overview page 3 to 5 days after the billing period ends.

Downloading past mobile bills

• Bill history: in My Verizon, go to your Bill overview page, select the Billing history tile, then Review History. You can view, download or print up to 24 months of past bills.
• Documents & Receipts: on the website, go to Account, then Bill, then Documents & Receipts. In the app, Verizon's steps are Account, then Account links, Service Central, Bill & payment history and Documents & Receipts. Everything there is a PDF. It holds monthly bills for 18 months and receipts from Verizon stores for 12 months, which is handy if you bought a phone for work.

Only the account owner or an account manager can see Documents & Receipts. For bills older than two years, Verizon says to contact them.

Fios and other home services

For Verizon home internet, sign in to My Verizon and open Bill History. In the app, tap the Home tab, then Bill. Verizon's help page for home bills doesn't say how far back the history goes, so download what you need early.

AT&T

Where AT&T sends bills

AT&T can email or text you when your bill is ready. You set up these alerts in your AT&T profile's communication settings. AT&T describes its paperless Bill Ready Notice as an email with your current balance, the due date and a link to sign in and view the bill.

Downloading past bills

Sign in to your bill and payment history with your AT&T ID. From the bill page, choose Download to get a PDF of the bill, or View/Print to get a PDF to print. You see the bills tied to the AT&T ID you signed in with. AT&T's help pages say payment history covers up to 16 months but don't give a firm figure for bills, so download them as they arrive. For older bills, AT&T says to contact them, and a fee may apply.

AT&T Internet Air customers find their bill in the Account activity section instead.

T-Mobile

Downloading past bills

• In the T-Life app: open the Account tab and select View PDF bill for the current bill. For older ones, go to Account, then View my bills and Past bills. Up to 18 months of bill history is available.
• On T-Mobile.com: sign in, go to the Bill details screen and select Download PDF. You can choose a summary or a detailed bill.

T-Mobile says you can download and print up to 18 previous bills for free from your account. Reprints through Customer Care cost $5 per bill, with one free reprint per calendar year. So it's cheaper to download them yourself.

Xfinity

Where Xfinity sends bills

With paperless billing turned on, Xfinity emails you each month with the amount due, the due date and a link to your bill. On the website you turn it on under Billing & Pay, then Manage Paperless Billing. In the app, it's Account, Bill details, Bill settings, then Paperless billing.

Downloading past bills

• On the web: sign in, select Bill history, then select a bill to download a PDF.
• In the Xfinity app: tap Account, then Bill details, then Bill history, and tap the date of the bill you want to view or download.

You can get up to 24 months of bills, for active or disconnected services. You need to be the primary user or a manager on the account.

Getting a whole year of bills

None of the four carriers has a "download a year" button for personal accounts. Twelve PDFs is manageable, though. The fastest route:

1. Open the bill history on the website and download each month's PDF. A computer is quicker than a phone for this.
2. Name them consistently, such as 2025-03 Verizon.pdf, so they sort by date.
3. Search your email to check you didn't miss a month. The bill-ready emails make a handy checklist. Sender addresses vary, so search by name:

from:(verizon OR att OR t-mobile OR xfinity OR comcast) (bill OR statement OR payment) after:2025/01/01 before:2026/01/01

That finds the notices, not the bills, but it tells you which months to download. More Gmail searches for receipts.

If you've switched carriers or closed an account, download the old bills now. Xfinity keeps bills for disconnected services, but don't count on every carrier doing that.

A personal plan used partly for business

Most freelancers and small business owners pay for one phone plan and one home internet connection, and use both for work and for personal life. Here's the general picture.

• Only the business part is deductible. The IRS says that if an expense is partly for business and partly personal, you separate the two, and the personal part is generally not deductible (Publication 334).
• Pick a reasonable way to estimate the split and write it down. For example, a rough share of your phone use or internet time that's for work. Use the same method all year and keep a short note of how you worked it out, alongside the bills.
• A home landline is a special case. IRS Publication 587 says no deduction is allowed for the cost of a basic local telephone line provided to the home. Separate business charges on top of that, or a second line used only for business, are a different question for your tax professional.
• A separate business line is simpler. If a phone or internet plan is only for the business, the whole bill is a business expense and there's nothing to split.
• Employees are different. If you're an employee rather than self-employed, different rules apply.

This is general information, not tax advice. A tax professional can tell you what percentage is reasonable for your situation.

Doing it with What Receipt?

Download each month's PDF and add it to What Receipt?, or send it to your personal forwarding address from any mailbox. It reads the vendor, date and total and files the bill with your other receipts. Put the phone and internet bills in a project such as Business, note the business-use percentage you settled on, and they go out in the same CSV as everything else. With Pro, What Receipt? also spots recurring charges and alerts you when a regular one goes missing, so a month you forgot to download stands out.

Questions

How far back can I download Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Xfinity bills?

As of October 2026: Verizon keeps up to 24 months of mobile bills in Billing history. AT&T doesn't publish a firm figure for bills (its payment history covers up to 16 months). T-Mobile keeps up to 18 months. Xfinity keeps up to 24 months, including for disconnected services. For anything older, contact the carrier. Some charge a fee for reprints.

Is the paperless billing email enough as a receipt?

Usually not. The email typically shows the amount due and a link, not the itemized bill. Download the PDF of the bill itself and keep that.

Can I deduct my cell phone bill if I use it for work?

If you're self-employed, you can generally deduct the business part of a phone used for both business and personal calls. Estimate the business share reasonably, apply it consistently and keep a note of how you got there. Ask a tax professional how it applies to you.

Can I deduct my home internet bill?

The same principle applies: generally only the business part of a mixed-use connection is deductible. Keep the bills and a note of how you estimated the business share.

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Account menus change. These steps follow Verizon's, AT&T's, T-Mobile's and Xfinity's help centers as of October 2026. This guide is general information, not tax advice.