I rent a room in my house to a friend, he has full access to the house including things like the home gym i'm building in the basement and the grill. Can I expense these?

[Melaine]

Yes, the portion of your expenses will be based on the amount of space you have rented.  Example:  If you have a 2000 sq. ft home, and the room you rented out is 300 sq. ft., you can deduct 15% of your utilities.  So if your sewer bill for the time they were there, by the end of December was $1,200, then you can deduct $180.00.  If the room mate has full run of the house, you divide your expenses by the number of occupants. If there's just the 2 of you, then half your expenses are deductible (mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, utilities, repairs, and depreciation (if needed).

However, it is important to remember that, because it is your own home and you also have personal use of it), you cannot claim a loss from this activity to offset other income.  Because of the IRS personal use rule, you deductions are limited to your income.  For more information and how to enter this in Turbo Tax, please see the post below;

https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/3288530