I'm hoping you can help... I've searched everywhere and there is no resource that covers this unique situation.

I am a regular W-2 employee. I offered to rent a room to a summer intern of our company and the company paid me directly $300/monthly rent for the three month internship, totalling $900 in payments (instead of paying the intern a housing stipend and then the intern paying me). I wouldn't exactly call this "income" as this was a below fair market value rental rate.

Should I expect the $900 company paid rent to show up on my W-2 or even though I'm an employee, but it's not an employment related expense... would this be a 1099-MISC?

Thank you,
Thoroughly Confused!

The answer to this depends on your employer. If they are counting this as a misc payment to or if they are putting this in a different way. The only way to ask your employer how they are doing the paperwork for the money.

Agreed! Contact the employer and ask THEM how they plan to report the income.

It should NOT be reported on your W-2, as it is NOT compensation, but rather a payment for rent,

I would expect that they will produce Form 1099-MISC and (hopefully) show it as a payment of rent (Block #2). If so, you would need to complete Schedule E to report the income and offset it by your expenses. Note that, because it is a room out of your personal home that you CANNOT show a loss for this three-month rental, but you CAN completely offset the income with legitimate rental expenses.

Those expenses include the pro-rated share of utilities for your home, plus pro-rated depreciation based on three months and the square footage of the rented room versus your house suqare footage.