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cricketmonkey
Dec 13, 2008, 12:49 PM
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!

help me1
Dec 13, 2008, 10:36 PM
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.

AtlantaTaxExpert
Dec 15, 2008, 11:51 AM
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.