Airbnb Taxes for Rental

[Cassandra Popli]

I was hoping someone might know the answer to the question I had about whether I need to report the earnings on my Airbnb listing. I listed it last year for around 2 1/2 months, but since the apartment is rented, I didn't actually earn more than the apartment's rental value (I rented it for approx 3 weekends per month). Would my apartment rent be considered an expense, which would effectively offset the income and mean I don't have to report it? Thanks!!

[Basit Siddiqi]

@Cassandra Popli

You may not need to report the income if you rented the home for less than 15 days.

Airbnb may provide you a 1099-K for the gross income that you earned during the year. This 1099-K will also be transmitted to the IRS. 

The IRS may issue you a notice indicating to you why you did not report the income from AirBnb. You would then need to communicate with the IRS that you rented the unit for less than 15 days and not subject to taxation.

Please see IRS Publication 527 for more details

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p527.pdf