How do you claim income on your tax return for a couch in a common area?

[James284]

Hi everyone!

From what I've read from IRS Publication 527, the IRS requires hosts who rent out a spare bedrooms to seperate their Airbnb rooms and the rest of the home by the terms "rental use" and "personal use". Hosts claim attribue rental expenses to this spare bedroom either by what percentage of square feet the room takes up of the whole house or by the number of rooms they have in the house that are available for Airbnb rental. 

But what do you do for an Airbnb listing that's in a shared space (for example, a couch in the living room)? Everybody in the home (host + roommates) uses the living room, even just to walk through to other parts of the house. IRS says that a rental space, like a room, is one in which the individual has "exclusive use" of the room. Can we say that a guest who rents a couch in a common area has "exclusive use" of that shared space? (I thought the "shared space" listing description is to identify that the guest's use is not exclusive.) 

And when it comes time to claim rental expenses as deductions, which method do you use for this shared room: percentage of square feet of house or as another room in the number of rooms method? Do I have to match the room square feet with the floor plan or something? (It's an open living room that connects to an open kitchen.) 

Thanks a lot for your help!!

Cheers, 

James

[Raf3]

I would not re-characterize  the couch just because it's in a shared space like a living room. You're still renting the exclusive use of the couch . At that point you could just further pro-rate based on square feet of the couch, but I think you'd be splitting hairs at that point.