Schedule E, Property Type: Single-family OR vacation/short term?

[writermom3]

Hello:

We own a condo with our college son. He lives in the condo during the school year (he comes home for holidays and summer) and we rent out other rooms to roommates. Under property type, is it "single family" or "vacation/short-term?"

I'm also confused with "days rented." I typed "365" since it's rented out for 365 days but under personal days, it won't let me include the days my son is there. Is that because the question is asking how many days THE RENTED ROOMS are used for personal use? (If that's the case, then 0 is correct.)

Thanks in advance!

[CarolC · Accepted solution]

You can use single family, but you need to allocate your son's personal use and the business use percentage.  You need to take the total square footage of the condo.  How much space is exclusively used by the other renters?  You may only deduct that percentage for all of your expenses.  For example, the common areas such as kitchen, dining, and living rooms are more than likely used by your son.  Therefore, that portion of the square footage is not deductible.  So if the total exclusive rented space is 250 square feet out of a 1200 square foot condo, you can only deduct 21% of the expenses.

If you do not rent the condo to make a profit, the other option is to report this income as Not for profit rental income.  You will report the rental income received as Other Income.  This will reflect on Line 21 of your 1040.  You can then deduct the portion of your rental expenses on your Schedule A - as other miscellaneous itemized deductions.

[writermom3]

Thank you! Yes, I have allocated his personal use correctly as you write but last year, I checked off "vacation/short-term" and now I'm wondering if I need to amend last year's return? And what about the "days rented?" Do I continue to say "365" with "0" personal use?

[CarolC]

@writermom3 Review your 2016 return and confirm that the end result (percentage of expenses) is reflecting correctly.  As long as that's the case, your 2016 return should be fine.  Since you are accounting for only the rented portion of the condo, it would be fine to say "365" days with "0" personal use.

[writermom3]

Thank you. That makes sense.