How do I enter the room and board payments we receive from our Special Needs son who is on SSI?

[Mamagraham1]

Our son is 19 and gets SSI.  We charge him room and board as is customary to get the full SSI check.  How do I enter these on my return?

[ColeenD3]

Is it truly room and board or is he just helping out with bills? Do you have a landlord/tenant relationship?

If he is your tenant, you would enter the income on Schedule E and say that you rent out part of your home. You would prorate by square footage the portion of the home that he rents vs the square footage of the entire home.

Shared spaces are considered the homeowner's personal-use property and is not included in the rental square footage.

[Mamagraham1]

I guess I am not entirely sure.  We have a very simple one page room and board agreement as that has to be on file with Social Security so that he gets his full benefits otherwise we would not be charging him anything.  Does that help?

[DianeW777]

This is considered renal income based on your situation.  The following information will show you how to enter it into your tax return.  You will need to use TurboTax Premier Online or TurboTax Basic CD/Download version.

To enter your rental:

1. Open or continue your return, if you haven’t already
2. Locate the Search bar in the upper right of your screen. Search for rentals and select the Jump to link at the top of the search results
3. Answer Yes to the question Did you have any income from rentals or royalties?
4. On the next screen, What are you here to report?, select Rentals and Continue
   • If you have more than one rental property to report, no problem—just start with one, and we’ll come back to the other one(s) later
5. On the following screens, we'll ask you to enter all the info we need about your rental property, including: a description of the property, your rental income, any expenses and assets, and other less common situations about your rental
6. When you reach the Here’s your rental property info screen, double-check the info you entered to make sure everything is accurate and that you haven’t left anything out
7. Once you’ve entered all your info, you’ll be taken to the Your income screen
   • If you have more rentals to enter, scroll down to Rental Properties and Royalty Income (Sch E) and select Edit/Add next to this line
   • On the Your 2021 rentals and royalties summary screen, select Add another rental or royalty
   • From here, follow these instructions again, starting with Step 3, and repeat until you’ve entered all your rental income

Tip: Rent is considered income in the year you received it, not the year it applies to. This means that a rent payment for the month of January 2022 collected in December 2021 is reported on your 2021 return.

As indicated by our awesome Tax Expert @ColeenD3 - You would prorate by square footage the portion of the home that he rents vs the square footage of the entire home.  Use this percentage times the cost, plus capital improvements to the entire home to determine the cost basis for the rental home asset. 

Also use this percentage for utilities and any other cost that is used by the entire home.  If there are direct expenses for the just the room that tis rented such as painting you can deduct the full cost associated with just that room.

[AndrewA87]

I am in the same situation. I assume taking the depreciation on the room rental is permissible?

[KrisD15]

Yes, if you are truly renting to him, you will take depreciation on the room and any other assets (property) you rent to him, such as a bed if you supply that. 

If fact, the IRS REQUIRES you to take the depreciation. 

As stated in the answers above, the depreciation on the room is figured on the value of the home, portioned by the amount of space the room is compared to the total size of the house.