Entering utilities for room rented out of house

[lauramb32]

I rented a room out of my home from Aug-Dec in 2019. I'm on a screen that says "Enter Common Expenses" and it lists things like "Advertising, Travel, Cleaning, etc." There is a box that says "Utilities." Do I enter all my utilities expenses for 2019, all utilities expenses for aug-Dec, or just 50% for my roommate (or some such calculation based on what she used)? What about the boxes for insurance and real estate taxes? Or should all this come out in deductions??

[AnnetteB6]

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

[lauramb32]

That was very helpful, thank you! Can I also write off a portion of my actual monthly mortgage payment? If so where would I put that?