Short Term Rentals Tax Guide for Hosts of Airbnb, HomeAway, VRBO, and More

Finally, a detailed and definitive tax guide on what to do with your taxes if you’re hosting on Airbnb, HomeAway, VRBO, or any other short term rental platform.  Taxes are complicated enough for traditional rental property owners, but they’re even trickier for short term rental hosts.

And because taxes could be so different for each host in each market, it’s not wonder that there just aren’t clear tax guidance provided online.

Getting your taxes done right is not a straight forward exercise and even if you are hiring a tax expert to help you, understanding the issue more clearly will help you to better position your operation to maximize deductions and avoid potential penalties.  For a host that makes $7500 in extra income, the right tax decisions could mean the difference of between a barely profitable operation and a highly profitable operation.

This is the FIRST and most detailed coverage of the topic we’ve seen yet!  Author Stephen Fishman, J.D. covers all of the important tax related topics in great detail.

NOTE: This book is written with the US reader in mind, but many of the concepts covered may be useful for international hosts to know.

Overview of the Tax Guide Contents

This book covers all the major categories of tax considerations for short term rental hosts, which include:

• How Short Term Rental Hosts are Taxed – the guide introduces various ways that short term rental hosts may be taxed, including income taxes, social security and medicare taxes, investment income tax, and local & state occupancy taxes.
• Dealing with Expenses – from how the basics of deductions, what you can you deduct, what constitutes operating expenses, dealing with repairs vs improvements, proper documentation, etc…
• How to Deduct and Depreciate Long Term Assets – separating real vs personal property, regular vs bonus depreciation, prorating deductions, calculating personal vs rental days, etc…
• Reporting & Filing – how to use Schedule E, how to report rental loss, Form 1099, backup withholding for contractors, etc…
• Deducting Losses – what are rental losses, vacation home rules, hotel business rules, regular rental activity rules, etc…
• Record Keeping – what records do you need to keep, how to track income and expenses, what support documents do you need, etc…

Don’t leave it to chance! Educate your self as much as you can to make sure you’re maximizing your deductions, minimizing potential penalties, and ultimately, maximizing your hosting profits.

To get a copy of the book, you can find it on Amazon.