The IRS provides a
worksheet in Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax, which lists the common
costs for keeping up a home, and allows you to track whether you have paid over
half of the costs - please see attached screenshot, below.
Costs you include. Include in the cost of
keeping up a home expenses such as rent, mortgage interest, real estate taxes,
insurance on the home, repairs, utilities, and food eaten in the home.
If you
used payments you received under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
or other public assistance programs to pay part of the cost of keeping up your
home, you can’t count them as money you paid. However, you must include them in
the total cost of keeping up your home to figure if you paid over half the
cost.
Costs you don’t
include. Don’t
include the costs of clothing, education, medical treatment, vacations, life
insurance, or transportation. Also, don’t include the rental value of a home
you own or the value of your services or those of a member of your household
For more information,
please see IRS Publication 17:
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf
