Hello Cathi, I agree that it is a wash, but not necessarily in the same tax year, since I receive the rent and utility money before the end of month and pay the utility after the beginning of next month. Are you sure that it really is my income and expense from the income tax perspective? My logic says that I’m just paying someone’s else expenses per agreement and this is not a paid service to my tenant, so it does not qualify as income/expense. The example in your link describes the case when “Under the terms of the lease, your tenant does NOT have to pay this bill.”, which is not my case. My lease terms clearly state that the tenant is responsible for all utilities and we just agreed on a specific way how he pays them through my account. Thank you very much for working with me. I’d like to have it right.
