If you will work through the program the way it is designed and intended to be used, you will be asked for rental information first. I can not stress the importance of reading each and every screen, especially the small print, before you make selections or enter data on that screen. Also pay attention to the wording of each screen. There is a vast difference between "select the one that applies" and "select all that apply".
For example, one of the selections you will make on one of the screens is the selection for "I rent out a part of my home". You will probably make other selections on that same screen too. When you do that, you will be given the opportunity to have the program figure some of the splits "for you".
For example, if you elect to have the program do the splits for you, the rental section will ask you to enter your 1098 *exactly* as printed and the program *not you* will split the mortgage interest between the SCH E for the period of time and amount of space that is classified as a rental, the space/time that is not classified as a rental will be on SCH A *AUTOMATICALLY* by the program.
Then depending on your specific and explicit situation, there may be other screens that will ask you for "whole house" expenses, and screens that ask you for "rental portion only" expenses. When renting a room in your house, it is *not* common to have anything listed as a "rental portion only" expense.
In other situations, you may have to figure and enter the splits manually yourself. In that case, mortgage interest, property insurance and property taxes are split between SCH E and SCH A based on the square footage of the house that is "exclusive to the renter" and is further reduced based the days it was classified as a rental. But the split for utility costs is based on the number of people living in the house and the number of days rented. Then, when it comes to utilities the one utility cost you can't claim on the SCH E at all is the cost of a land line telephone, if you only have one phone number assigned to your residence.
Additionally, any other utilities claimed (gas, electric, water, cable, internet, etc.) must be accessible by the tenant from the space that is exlusive to that tenant. For example, if you don't have a cable TV outlet in the renter's room, then you can't claim any of your cable costs at all on the SCH E.
