How long do you need to keep utility bills in Canada?

Short answer: if a utility bill supports a claim on your tax return, keep it six years from the end of the tax year it relates to. If it never touches a return, the CRA has no rule for it, and about a year for your own reference is plenty.

Utility bills sit in an odd spot: for most households they are throwaway paperwork, but the moment one supports a tax claim it becomes a record the CRA can ask to see. The difference is worth getting right, because the two cases point in opposite directions.

Six years, if you claim the bill

Three common situations turn a household bill into a supporting document:

• You work from home (self-employed). A reasonable share of heat, electricity, and water is part of the business-use-of-home calculation on Form T2125. The bills are the evidence for the claim.
• You have rental income. Utilities you pay for a rental are a routine expense against rental income, and the bills back the numbers.
• Your employer requires you to work from home and you claim home-office expenses as an employee: the same logic applies to the eligible portion.

In all of these, the retention rule is the standard one: six years from the end of the tax year the record relates to (CRA: how long to keep your records). A 2025 hydro bill claimed on your 2025 return needs to survive until the end of 2031.

Which bills can go now? In 2026, bills that supported claims for the 2019 tax year or earlier have passed the six-year window, as long as you filed those returns on time and no objection or appeal is still open. A late-filed return runs its six years from the date you filed it, so check that before you shred.

No CRA rule, if you never claim it

If a bill never supports a claim, there is no CRA retention requirement for it. Common practice is to keep bills for around a year, enough to dispute a billing error, compare rates, or prove your address, and then let them go. That is a convenience choice, not a compliance one.

The same claim-or-not test runs through the rest of your paperwork. How long to keep tax records covers returns, slips and statements document by document, and medical receipts have their own twist because of the 12-month claim window.

Keep the copy digital

Paper bills and receipts printed on thermal stock do not survive a six year window on their own. Here is why they fade, and what keeps them readable.

The CRA accepts a properly captured digital image as the record (acceptable format and imaging), and unlike thermal receipts, utility bills usually arrive as PDFs you can simply save. If yours come on paper, a clear photo does the same job, and a receipt app built for taxes keeps bills and receipts in one searchable place. Either way, six years of bills takes no drawer space at all.

Does the answer change by bill type? Hydro, gas, water, internet, phone

No. The six-years-if-claimed rule is about what the bill supports on your return, not what kind of utility it is. What changes by type is how often each one is claimable:

Six years counts from the end of the tax year you claimed the bill. Where the CRA sets no rule, about a year for your own reference is common.

• Hydro and electric bills. "Hydro" and "electricity" are the same line item to the CRA. Electricity is part of every business-use-of-home calculation, so a hydro bill you claim keeps for six years like any other supporting document.
• Natural gas and heating bills. Heat is claimable the same way, and in most provinces it is the largest utility line in a winter home-office claim. Same six years once claimed.
• Water bills. Claimable in the same household split; six years once claimed, no rule if never claimed.
• Internet and phone bills. These are utilities to most households but a separate expense line to the CRA, claimed by business-use share rather than square footage. The retention answer is identical: six years from the end of the tax year you claimed them.

What about other household bills?

Home insurance, property tax, mortgage interest and rent follow the same test as utilities. If a share goes into a home-office or rental claim, keep the statement that backs it for six years from the end of that tax year. If nothing is claimed, the CRA sets no rule for it. Records about the home itself, such as the purchase price and major improvements, are a different case: they relate to capital property, which runs on a longer clock than the usual six years.

The takeaway

• Claimed on a return (home office, rental, employment home-office): keep six years from the end of the tax year.
• Never claimed: no CRA rule; about a year for your own reference is common.
• A legible PDF or photo counts as the record, and it is the version that survives.

Common questions

How long do you need to keep utility bills in Canada?

It depends on whether they support a tax claim. If a bill backs a home-office, self-employment, or rental claim, keep it six years from the end of the tax year it relates to. If you never claim it on a return, the CRA has no retention rule for it, and most households keep bills about a year for their own reference.

Do utility bills count as tax records?

They do the moment they support a claim. A share of heat, electricity, and water is a common part of the business-use-of-home calculation for the self-employed, and utilities are a routine expense against rental income. Once claimed, the bill is a supporting document the CRA can ask for.

Is a photo or PDF of a utility bill enough?

Yes. The CRA accepts properly captured digital images as records, and most utility providers offer PDF bills. A legible digital copy that shows the provider, date, and amount does the job, and it survives longer than paper.

Can you get old utility bills from your provider?

Usually, but not indefinitely. Most providers let you download 12 to 24 months of bills online; older statements can require a support request and sometimes a fee. That is why saving the bill when it arrives beats reconstructing it years later.

How many years of utility bill statements should you keep?

Six years of statements, counted from the end of the tax year, for any bill that supports a claim on your return. For bills you never claim there is no required number of years; keeping roughly the current year of statements for reference is typical, and a saved PDF costs nothing to keep longer.