I have an attached guest house that has been on Airbnb (average stay is 3 months) for many years and I file schedule E. Utilities are single meter/internet modem and I have been using splitting based on the sq ft percentages (27:73). This year I moved out of the main house (moved out of state) and made it an Airbnb rental as well (again, average stay is 3 months).
I would like to, moving forward, treat is all as one property. The splitting isn't a perfect science anyway as there are many shared maintenance expenses and utilities e.g shared backyard, frontyard, laundry, driveway, walls and the roof. And its a PITA. I also received a single 1099 from Airbnb for 2021.
Treating it as 1 property moving forward: where I am confused is when Turbotax asks me, is this the first year in service? Date of service for the house was 25 June 2021 but I had to live in the house Sept-mid dec renovating it (it was rented 25 july - till I moved back in as the renovation ran over). The date of service for the guest house was 1 Jan 2016.
If I select yes, that's incorrect because for the guest house its not. If I select no, that's incorrect too as its the first year in service for the house.
What's the best way to handle this? I would really like to treat it as a single property. Again, same address, attached, many shared common areas, just different dates in service.
Thanks
