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Thread: Rent Receipts?

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    Featured Member MadisonM's Avatar
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    Default Rent Receipts?

    Ok so my boyfriend and I are getting an apartment together. It's $400 per month, nothing included. We will be renting the apartment from the manager at the club I work at (she's also the manager of an apartment rental company). I plan on paying her cash each month, and getting a receipt. My boyfriend and I are going to split the rent and all the utilities and other bills (cable, internet,etc.) 50/50. When I got my taxes done for last year, my accountant asked me if I had any rent receipts. Since I had never paid rent before, I didn't have any for her. Why did she ask for my rent receipts? Will they make a difference in my taxes? If they do make a difference, will it matter if the receipts I give her next year are for the whole amount ($400/month) even if I'm only paying half of that? I'm just not exactly sure how that works. Thanks!
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    Default Re: Rent Receipts?

    Pay with check. Not leaving a paper trail in this case might hindure you from a significant purchase (ie car or house). http://www.stripperweb.com/forum/sho...highlight=cash
    ^^recent thread.
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    Featured Member MadisonM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rent Receipts?

    ^^^ Ok I just read that thread, but I still have a question. If I write out a check for rent (which I think I will do after reading that thread) it will show that I'm paying $400 for rent, when really, I'm only paying $200, and my boyfriend is paying the other $200. Will that make a difference for taxes or anything? My boyfriend will probably give me the $200 by check or cash, and I will put that money into my checking, and write out the rent check for the whole amount.
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    Default Re: Rent Receipts?

    If you, personally, are paying $200 a month, then when you hand over your cancelled checks, you tell your accountant that you paid 1/2 or $200 every month for rent. It DOES make a difference because if the IRS ever wanted to "verify" your income, they would do so by doing a "cost of living" approach. If it comes up that you pay $400 for your place, but only claimed enough money to pay $200 for your place...that could land you in trouble. However, if you have a "roommate" who pays 1/2 of the rent, and you can show that the roomie gives you a check for $200 every month and then you write a check for $400 to the landlord, it would go to prove what you pay/earn what you said you did.

    Moreover, if BOTH of you writes a check to the landlord (2 separate checks for $200 each) then it would be even better for you. Because, now you don't have HIS money intermixed with YOUR money...and if he's going to write a $200 check to you for the rent, wouldn't it just be easier for him to write it to the landlord? If he's got a checking account, and it sounds as if he does, then HE should write a check and YOU write a check every month.

    Never, ever pay for rent in cash.

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    Default Re: Rent Receipts?

    Both of you should just make checks out to the landlord for 1/2 the rent, aside from giving you an accurate record of how much rent you're actually paying, it has other advantages, namely letting each party know that its their responsibility to come up with their share of the bill.

    I used to share a house with four roommates while I was in college, and this was what we did. That way if someone's rent check wasn't hanging on the refridgerator on rent day, we knew who the guilty party was. Also, no one had to worry about overdrafting their checking account this way.
    Former SCJ now in rehab.

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    Default Re: Rent Receipts?

    I used to pay 4x that much rent in cash, and just got a receipt for it. They won't let me do it anymore.

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    Default Re: Rent Receipts?

    ^^ where IRS income 'reconstruction' goes, you definitely do NOT want to be receiving money directly from your roommate. Based on previous precedents of girls with 'sugar daddies' who were audited, it's not impossible that the IRS could choose to interpret your roommate's $200 monthly check as 'payment for services rendered', i.e. additional income that you must claim and pay taxes on.

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