I have a room in my house registered with AirBnb. I live in the home 365 days/year. Does this mean I own a business or have rental property? Do I use Deluxe or Premier?

 
wright-js
New Member

Investors & landlords

First - I am NOT a tax expert; please speak with a tax professional if you need to.

General web consensus is to file Sch E.  Deduct tax burden on rent income by splitting mortgage interest, real estate tax, utilities by number of days room was rented and multiply by percent sq ft room is in relation to rest of house.  For example, let's say you are renting a room that is 10% of your total floor space and you rent it for half the month.  You have a water bill of $100 that month.  10% x $100 x (half the month) = $5 deduction for that utility that month.  Advertising, repairs (for rental purposes), cleaning supplies/services, etc. are all 100% deductible (dollar for dollar), assuming you have kept receipts.

If you rented less than 14 days in a year, do nothing.  IRS does not require you to file in that case.

You may also want to deprecate resources, such as high ticket items you bought in 2017 for the rented room including furniture, appliances, etc.  Be careful deprecating your own primary residence however, as any gain you make upon selling your home (if you do) will be offset by any deprecation you have claimed in ALL previous years.

If you provided services, such as breakfast or drove your guests around town, you will need to file Sch. C instead (do not file Sch. E) and will need to pay additional self-employment tax.

You will NOT receive any paperwork from Airbnb unless you have rented over 200 days in a year AND have received more than $20k in payment.  It is up to you to ensure you report correct payment to the IRS.

Finally, if you have received very little payment in relation to other income (Airbnb is your lite side job and represents <5% total income) you may be able to simply report everything as misc. income.  If you go this route, you will not be able to deduct any expenses for the rental whatsoever.

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