The expenses that are related to your home and the portion of your home that was rented will need to be prorated so that you are only claiming a portion of the expenses that are related to the rental part of your home.
First, determine the percentage of your total square feet that is being used as a rental. For example, if your total square feet of the whole house is 1000 and the rental space is 250 square feet, then 25% of the house is being used as a rental property. That means 25% of the expenses related to your whole house can be deducted as a rental expense. But, that 25% is assuming that you have rented the space for all 12 months of the year.
Since you only rented the space from August through December, that is 5 months out of 12 months. So, after you have calculated the total of the expenses based on the square feet being rented, you will then take only 5/12 of the amount on the 2019 tax return.
Here's an example: using the 250 out of 1000 square feet as the size of the rental property, suppose you paid $1200 in utility expenses for the whole year. The rental portion of the utilities would be 25% of the $1200 or $300. Then taking only 5/12 of the $300 to account for the 5 months of rental, you would claim $125 for rental utility expense.
@lauramb32
**Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumb icon in a post
**Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Mark as Best Answer"
