What expenses do I enter if I rent out part of my home?
If you rent part of your property, you need to divide certain expenses between the rental portion and the portion used for personal purposes, as though you actually had two separate pieces of property.
If an expense is used directly for the rented portion only, include the full amount.
If an expense is for both rental use and personal use, you must divide the expense between rental use and personal use. You can use any reasonable method for dividing the expense (by square footage or by the number of people using the expense, for example).
Only include the amounts for the rental portion on the Rental Expenses screen.
Example:
Let's say you're renting out a basement apartment in your home where your entire home is 2,000 square feet, and the basement is 800 square feet.
If you paid $200 to clean your tenant's carpet, you'd enter $200 in cleaning and maintenance.
If you paid $1,000 for shared utilities, you'd need to figure out what portion belongs to the basement apartment. One way you could figure out this expense is by using the square footage. You'd divide the rental's square footage by the home's total square footage and multiply it by the utilities amount. In this case, you'd enter $400 in utilities (800 / 2,000 * 1,000).
If an expense is used directly for the rented portion only, include the full amount.
If an expense is for both rental use and personal use, you must divide the expense between rental use and personal use. You can use any reasonable method for dividing the expense (by square footage or by the number of people using the expense, for example).
Only include the amounts for the rental portion on the Rental Expenses screen.
Example:
Let's say you're renting out a basement apartment in your home where your entire home is 2,000 square feet, and the basement is 800 square feet.
If you paid $200 to clean your tenant's carpet, you'd enter $200 in cleaning and maintenance.
If you paid $1,000 for shared utilities, you'd need to figure out what portion belongs to the basement apartment. One way you could figure out this expense is by using the square footage. You'd divide the rental's square footage by the home's total square footage and multiply it by the utilities amount. In this case, you'd enter $400 in utilities (800 / 2,000 * 1,000).
