Say I am renting an apartment for ~$1000 a month and I have a friend that needs a place to say. I let him stay on my couch and he pays me ~$999 a month. So I'm at a loss of $1 each month.  Do I need to report this as income?  He has stayed for more than 14 days (closer to 90), so from my understanding it's not a Tax Free rental. It's also my personal residence, and I'm operating at a net loss because my expense are higher than the revenue it's generating.   Is it considered taxable income because I would be living in the apartment regardless of him needing a place to stay? I'm a bit unclear on how it works if there is not a lease in place. He's just giving me some money each month. And I'm also technically losing money, but I don't want to owe a bunch in taxes later because of a mistake.
122309
I'm currently renting a 2/2 apartment in the US that is managed by a REIT (NYSE:MAA). I set it up in which I am the sole responsible lease holder and have added a roommate to the lease as an occupant (not responsible for the rent). However, I am collecting rent from this roommate to make the rent payments. The office staff here is aware of it as they made note that if they don't make the rent, I am solely liable. I'm aware of this and comfortable with it. I don't expect any problems from the management company.  The question I have is, what (if any) are the tax implications of my receiving money in the form of monthly rent transferred to my checking account to then be paid to the apartment management company in the form of EFT?  If this money needs be declared as some form of income, what would be the best way to do so, and through what means should I be keeping records?  Thank you for any insight.
92542
I close on my first home October 21. I've locked in a 4.330% APR on a 30-year fixed conventional mortgage and my payment will be ~$800/month. I've put the required 20% down to avoid paying PMI.  However, the $800/m isn't even 25% of my take-home income and it will be &lt; 20% starting January 1st. This is skewed even more by the fact that I'm taking on extra contracting work that will net me an additional $1600/month before taxes.  I'm curious whether or not I should put that extra money into the principal of the home or if I would be better served putting it into a mutual fund. I've noticed quite a few mutual funds have historically had > 4.330% annual return on investment and if I was paying linear interest on the loan it would be no-brainer.  However, since I'll be putting in a small amount of money to the principle of the home at the beginning I'm wondering if I would be in a better position if I funneled that extra cash (We'll say $2000/m) toward the loan instead of investing it.  Is this a good idea?  Thanks.   Edit: Contextual Information   I'm 23 years old. My company does not offer matching, but instead deposits 8% of my salary + cafeteria funds into my 401k at the end of the year regardless of what I do. I have virtually no other debt to speak of (I just paid off my car and I keep my CC balance around $1,000 at any given time). I'm not bound to this location - my reasoning for buying a house is funneling my living expenses into principal instead of having it evaporate at the end of each month. I'm not particularly worried about being unemployed -- My house payment is low enough to where my unemployment check would more than pay for it and I'm in software, which means I can find a job on a whim if I needed to.
121176
My federal return was $2,800 and state was $170 last year and $4,800 and $1,200 this year which seems like I made a mistake somewhere to be that high.  Nothing else significant changed between last year and this year besides buying a house in California. With form 1098 listing $4,670 for box 1 (mortgage interest) and $4,690 for box 6 (points paid on purchase of principle residence) as well as $3,500 on property tax.  Just wanted to double check that this type of increase on tax return is normal for owning a house? I don't want to make a mistake during filing.
123730
I'm currently in the process of applying for various scholarships to fund my PhD.   Many scholarships mention explicitly the approximate amount per year of the scholarship. This is usually the amount excluding tuitions, so the amount mentioned is intended to be a stipend to cover living expenses.  I've never seen it mentioned anywhere, nor could I find a definite answer of this online: will this stipend be taxed? E.g., should I subtract a certain percentage off the scholarship amount that's mentioned, to calculate my real monthly income? Does this depend on the country the scholarship is given in, or are there international agreements on this?  I'm in the initial stages of setting up my PhD programme, therefore I'm in contact with professors in New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Canada, so ideally, answers to my question apply to any of these countries. If it's relevant: I'm a dual citizen (European/American Citizen).
118442
Currently my spouse and I rent a small apartment.  Eventually we'd like to expand the family, and a one bedroom rental won't cut it forever - even if we continue renting we'll be expanding to a detached single family home eventually.  In our area the rent ratios work out to about 16, which is under the cut for buying being a better financial decision over the long haul - i. e. I don't think it'd be economically an awful decision to buy (NYT calculator shows 10 years at the current prices and rents for buying to make sense).  I've also read enough of the rental propagandists to know that home ownership isn't the best way to grow my money.  My reasons for wanting to own are the intangibles: knowing we aren't going to have to move due to a landlord, being able to modify the place to our own liking, and that intangible sense of "this is mine" (even when it's the bank's for a while).  The things we do have:   Around (at or over) a 30% down payment depending on purchase price, and we won't be under 30% Closing costs separate from that fund Around 1% of the home value in reserve for emergency repairs separate from those funds A six month emergency fund separate A fund to replace an ailing car that will probably die before we can save up after this expense   At some point in the year or so after the purchase we plan to have enough saved up to pay down the principal and change our monthly payment somewhat, but not significantly.  So it seems like we've got the financial ducks in a row.  We can continue to fully fund our retirement accounts and make the monthly payments (PITI).  The only hesitation we have is that we can't make our payments comfortably on one income alone - it'd be over 30% of one income to do so, by just a bit.  So neither of us can completely stop working, although the second income does not need to be large.  Are we missing any important financial data about this step?  Should we be concerned about job loss (even though no signs of it are imminent for either of us)?
118892
I've heard two conflicting things: One is that you should pay your entire credit every month, and the other that you should maintain roughly %30, %50 (it varies by who you ask) of your available credit still indebted, but pay off the minimum amount every month.  Is one of those answers universally true? Does it depend on the credit card?  And two more tangentially related questions: I've heard that if you're late in paying bills that are unrelated to the credit card (for example electricity or cable) then it doesn't affect the credit history. Is that right?  And -- do you have to ask for more available credit or does it happen automatically? I currently have $500 (and have had for over a year); is there a special thing they're looking for take to me from $500 to $1000?
5650
My current income would place me in the 0% long-term capital gains bracket currently, while I anticipate them to be 15% within my working years that commence in 2018.   My stocks (an index fund) have appreciated about 50% since I bought them (most of these should be capital gains).   Wash sale rules would probably prevent me from investing in the stocks for 30 days, which means I'm expected to lose out on &lt;1% growth.    If I anticipate liquidating the stocks before retirement (in my working years), shouldn't I go ahead and do a sell-rebuy in order to make the next cost basis larger (which reduces the next long-term capital gains on the next sale)?
107977
I have $10,000 extra cash that I can either use to pay down my 5% mortgage, or contribute to my IRA.  I'm 30 years old.  I hope to pay off the mortgage in about 5 years.  I'm stymied, because:   Paying $10,000 into my mortgage earns me $500 a year (in interest savings) for the life of the mortgage -- hopefully 5 years. Paying $10,000 into my IRA earns me roughly a $3000 lowering of my tax bill now (plus CD ROI of about 1% at retirement time.)   So I can get $2500 ($500 a year over 5 years), after which I will have paid my mortgage off with other money; or I could get $3000 in cash right now plus a bit of extra money when I retire.  Even ignoring the future benefits of the IRA contribution, it feels like I should put the money into my IRA: it's an immediate 30% return on investment, as opposed to a 5% return for 5 years.  But if I always make that decision, I won't be paying off my mortgage early, and that $500 will stretch out over 30 years, costing me $15,000!  Which actually leaves me with more money in the end?  What basic principle of math am I missing?  Update:  The principle of math I was missing is that, assuming I'm taxed at the same rate when I retire as I am taxed now, I end up with exactly as much money as if I had invested the $10k and not received a $3k tax reduction.  (Of course, my income level and tax laws will have changed by then, but let's ignore that.)  So the question simplifies to, "Should I put $10k toward eliminating a 5% debt or toward a 1% investment?" in which case I should clearly put it toward the mortgage.  I was confused by the government incentive into thinking that retirement investment was a sweeter deal than it actually is.  This is probably their goal, and probably a noble one :)
114567
Both my husband and I have decided to visit our son in London for a few weeks in the summer. I'm in full time employment as a teacher while my husband has just retired but still receives monthly income from his shares and investments.  When filling out the Income and expenditure section on the visa form, do we divide the costs and savings between us on each form or do we write the same figures?  For example in the following questions:   How much do you spend each month on living costs? What is the cost to you personally of your trip in GBP(£)? The total amount of money you have for this trip The cost of the aeroplane, boat or train tickets
35545
My friend owns roughly $1M USD worth of Bitcoin. These coins are sitting on a (backed up and encrypted) hard drive in Brasil. He bought these coins legitimately, and has the paper trail to prove it.   He recently moved to the US, and now wants to get his coins and liquidate them.  I've been doing research on this topic, and I am unsure what kinda of taxes he will have to pay on these coins.  I've seen articles talking about capital gains tax from buying / selling coin, but he is not trading them in the US.  My thoughts lead me to think that this would be similar to him bringing over a ton of gold or other assets, and selling them off here, which makes me think of paying a sales tax.  As Bitcoin is still a newer development in the tax world, I am struggling to find any documentation on steps for this, so any feedback / options would be great.
85781
If somebody gives me reasonable advise or share important to me information.   Being attentive I would like to make a little gift or give some little (&lt;100$) amount of money (cash/wire/online) for that   How it would be classified by IRS?   Which obligations originate with this matter for me and my party?  How to do this in a most comfortable way to my party?
118248
My company offers RSUs — restricted stock units — as a benefit. These vest after a certain amount of time, and in 2013, my first chunk vested with a value of about $6400. As I understand it, at that time, when I accepted the distribution, that was reported as income, and Fidelity even sold some fraction to cover withholding, leaving about $4000.  Slightly more than a year later, I sold the entire lot; the stock price had gone up, so the total amount was $5200.  I'm new to all of this, but my understanding was that this would be a long term capital gain of about $1200.  However, my 1099-B from Fidelity has:  1b date acquired           :   10/16/13 1c date sold               :   10/28/14 1d proceeds                :   $5200 1e cost or other basis     :   $0 1f code / 1g adjustments   :   - Gain/loss                  :   $200 4 Federal Inc Tax Withheld :   $0  Box D Long-term realized gain: $5200   There is, however, a "2014 Supplemental information" form, which notes "This information is not reported to the IRS. It may assist you in tax return preparation". On this form, there is "Ordinary Income Reported" of $4000, "Adjusted Cost or Other Basis" is also $4000, and the final column is Adjusted Gain/Loss: $1200, just as I expected.  I'm confused. Why does the 1099-B say "0"? Is that $4000 actually taxed both as regular income and then again as capital gains? (That doesn't seem right, and I found  on this site, which seems to agree with my expectations. On the other hand, I don't want to put down what I think is right and have Fidelity tell the IRS that I owe a lot more.  What is the right thing to do on my tax return?
69326
This is an extension of my question asked .  Four roommates are living together. Two are co-tenants, who hold the lease, and the other two sublet from the co-tenants and pay rent and utilities to one of the co-tenants. Subtenant A has an agreement that utilities are included in his rent and do not need to be paid separately. Subtenant B is responsible for utilities as normal.  Does subtenant B pay 1/3 of the utilities, or 1/4?
38206
In the discussion around  it was said that a loan must be at market rate, or it is not considered a loan.  Respecting the wisdom of the people who said that, I'm unclear about how this would work in the general case, since plenty of people do make interest free loans to family and friends, and the IRS would seem to be unlikely to be in the business of policing loan rates.   Ignoring the issue in the original question about later paying off the loan through a gift,  let's say I make an interest free loan to someone, with the genuine intention that they pay it back in full at some later date, and with no intention of cheating the tax system. It would seem to me that he has no income to declare (because only the loan has occurred) and I have no income from the transaction. What exactly do he and I have to declare on our tax forms? Some links to tax office docs would be nice.  EDIT: Since it's been pointed out that it's hard to distinguish between loans and gifts, let's imagine that both parties have made a written loan agreement.
70883
How much money do I need to make in order to generate 1k/month for the rest of my life? Is that even possible? If yes, in what way? Edit: I am 30 years old.
72353
Together my wife and I have about $80,000 in student loans. My mother in law is in the process of selling her house. We proposed the idea of borrowing ~$50000 from her, once she sells, so that we could pay off our loans with higher rates. We offered to pay her back with an interest rate of 5%. Our idea was that we would be able to pay off all of the loans with a rate over 5%, and she would get a (nearly*) guaranteed 5% return rate.  Does this plan make sense to all parties involved?  Loan amounts  and rates (from a couple of months ago, may update when I have more time):  $10,541.19      8.63% $16,966.98      8.38% $ 6,423.44      6.55% $ 6,341.26      6.55% $14,715.64      6.50% $ 7,107.64      4.41% $ 2,126.34      4.25% $ 3,637.38      3.61% $ 3,438.88      3.61% $ 2,779.82      3.61% $ 4,131.47      3.15% $ 3,482.91      3.15% $   697.95      3.15%   Some other relevant information:   We've already bought a house  We own both our vehicles (actually have a third we need to sell) We're currently bringing in a little more each month than our monthly expenses, but can (and probably will) cut back in certain areas to have extra to pay off loans with even faster   * I only say nearly as you never know what could happen, but we have every intention of paying it all back at that rate.
53509
I filed an 83(b) election for stock I purchased in 2011 with the IRS with the 30 days window, but later did not include a copy of it in that year’s tax return.   The the purchase price and the fair market value was the same, so no capital gains tax was applicable that year.   Does this matter? And if so how would I remedy this?  Thanks