How Do You Bookkeep Utility Payment from Tenant (tax purposes)

Question

Hello all,

First post here. I am currently coming to the end of my first year in a house hack and I am checking over my documents and bookkeeping before tax time. The setup is as follows: 2 family, separate, propane for cooking and heating oil; shared electric (one meter for building); septic and well.

With regard to the electric, I charge a flat 100 per/month.

I have been using Stessa for bookkeeping purposes. I have everything tracked through that and a spreadsheet as a redundancy.

My question is: do I label the Income for the 100 per/ month electric charge as rents? I don't see any other applicable place for it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated,

Alex

Basit Siddiqi · Answer

@Alex DelTaxation when it comes to house-hacking can become very complex.To answer your question - Yes, you would include the utilities billed as income.You would be eligible for a potential deduction for the actual utilities used by the tenant that you paid for.

Alex Del · Answer

@Basit Siddiqi

Thank you for the reply,

I keep everything separate when it comes to transactions for the rental unit, hopefully by this coming summer I can transition from a house hack to a fully rented 2 family while I move to the next investment.

I appreciate your response!

How Do You Bookkeep Utility Payment from Tenant (tax purposes)

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