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Dear hosts, I am filing tax return and it is like mission impossible for the sharing type.
I rent two rooms and TurboTax seems only apply to those rent out whole houses. So what I did is to add up all the 96 nights and decided by 4(rooms) and consider I am renting out the whole house for 24 days. I have to say I lived in the house for 341days even though I lived 365 days as the total can only be 365.
I also proportionate house bills that way. I wonder how other hosts fill out the forms.
This is indeed a sticky one if you are talking Canada.
I take the total square footage of the house and then the square footage of the rooms for rent. So, if each room is 100 sq ft, and the house is 1000 sq St, there ya go.
Unless there is a dedicated area, like a kitchen, bathroom, etc that’s it.
You only rented a few months of the year. Was that intentional? If so you can only claim for those months.
You will almost certainly run in to questions. I started with 1 800 OhCanada and it took patience. Another way I have done it is to go to a smaller place with a Service Canada outlet. The one in Orillia is excellent. There are also tax assistance services for seniors and persons who are handicapped.
I will caution you though.
Keep all your receipts, spreadsheets and annotations carefully stored. They can audit you.
Be prepared for some confusion, even with the CRA. Make note of what you were told and who you spoke to.
May we all crash view Netflix through this mess!
Thank you! I live in US. The turbo tax software does not handle the partial home sharing.
When I do the square footage percentage, then convert to the equivalent of whole house renting, then I am renting for less than 15 days and I do not have to file. Well, I dare not to leave $15000 income unreported. So I simply added more footage to each room so that I can make it for more than 15 days.
It is also tricky where to enter the supply cost (food, linens, other stuff for guests). If you enter in the supply box, then it considered for the whole house and will deduct proportionally. So I had to enter where it says ONLY for the rental property.
I also researched on the qualified business income (QBI). Well, it seems that sharing a private room does not count for QBI. So mostly people file Schedule E for airbnb.
I try hard to keep record of everything. I might not print out all online receipts but I do write down all purchases for each booking.
My information is for Canada, not the US. I am afraid!