Do you have to split rental income 50/50 between spouses/co-owners? Or if I have always claimed 100% under my husband, should I just keep it consistent?

[jon_sanchez]

Before you can determine how much of the rental income to declare, you need to know how much of the property you own. If you and your spouse are co-owners, you declare a portion of the rent as decided in a written or verbal agreement between owners. If both of you own the property 50/50, it should be split 50/50.

Who reports the rental income or loss?   

The person who  owns  the rental property has to report the rental income or loss. If you are a co-owner of the rental property, your share of the rental income or loss will depend on your share of ownership.

Report the rental income the same way for each year you own that rental property. In other words, you cannot change the percentage of the rental income or loss you report each year unless the percentage of your ownership in the property changes.  

For additional information on claiming rental income, please visit this page:

Claiming Rental Income 

For any additional inquiries, you can contact our team here. 

[kkarpenic]

Hi!

Thank you so much for your response.

So for over 10 years I have been claiming 100% of the rental income (which is basically negligible) for a property that my husband and I are co-owners on under my husbands name.  This is honestly the first year I ever thought to ask if that was ok or the right way to do it (after a suggestion from a turbo tax specialist). She indicated that most people share the income 50/50 if they are co-owners.  I then asked my Father (a retired accountant). He said to just keep doing it the I always have been doing it.  That it’s not technically wrong.  But changing it now will only raise red flags?