AirBnB expenses - is it a "personal use day" if I am travelling for a day but I don't list the apartment on AirBnB that day?

[cabecabe]

I have an apartment which I sometimes list on AirBnB when I'm travelling, but I often don't. Let's say I rented the apartment for a year, and I slept there 300 nights, rented it 35 nights, and I was away for 30 nights when I chose not to list it on AirBnB.

Are my personal use days 300, because I was there overnight? Or 330, because even though I wasn't there, all my stuff was still there - so in that sense I was "using" it to store all my stuff?

(nb Please don't just post the IRS guidance on 'what counts as a personal use day', which list off different family members that count as personal, because that would not answer the question.)

[AnnetteB · Accepted solution]

Yes, it is a personal use day even if you did not stay there overnight.  In your scenario, your personal use days would be 330.

You are still “using” the apartment as your personal residence during the time you are absent by leaving your belongings behind.  If you were dealing with a property that is more like a hotel or a vacation rental (instead of a personal residence) in that when you leave you take everything with you, then you would not have a personal use day when the property was vacant and not used by either you or another renter. 

[cabecabe]

Thanks - that makes sense.  Can I ask one more question - I see some guidance elsewhere that I can claim expenses for days the apartment was listed for rent, even if it was not rented. But maybe this doesn't work for residences?

To make it concrete - in the example above, what if - for those 30 nights I was away - on 10 of those nights, I had it listed on AirBnB, but nobody rented it.  So
-300 nights I slept there (personal use)
-35 nights rented (rental use)
-20 nights left vacant and did not make available for rent (personal use, because it's my residence)
-10 nights made available for rent, but nobody rented it ---> is this personal or rental use?

And, if rental use: how to I enter the listed-but-vacant days into TTax?  The flow only asks for "days rented at fair market value" and "days of personal use".

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it!

[AnnetteB]

You are correct that expenses (such as utilities) can be claimed for days that the apartment was advertised and available for rent, but not rented.  So, given that logic, the 10 nights made available for rent would be rental use.  

When you enter your total personal use days and the total days rented, the leftover days (vacant days) would be included as rental (business) use days since you explicitly left them out of the personal number.

[cabecabe]

That makes sense and is very clear - thanks again!

[cabecabe]

(PS The language on the TTax input screen for this is not accurate, then - it says "include nights listed as fair market value, and nights used for personal reasons - don't list nights the property was vacant.)  Or, maybe this is one of those cases where the question flow doesn't restart if you change the type of property it is, and you need to re-enter from scratch to get the right instructions. Either way, a bug/bad instruction that I hope the software writers can fix.)