this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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I collect rent from a roommate. The unemployment office doesn’t consider it income so it doesn’t impact my unemployment payout.
The government doesn’t even consider landlord income to be employment income.
Do you own the property? If not, you're a tenant and it isn't treated as income because it isn't income. They're just paying their part of a shared rent through you.
If you are the owner, they aren't your roommate, they're your tenant, and maybe you should get these terms clear before you file your taxes again.
Yes I own the property.
And yes I know that I am taxed on the rent.
None of that is the point of my comment. The rent I collect isn’t treated as income by a wing of the government.
Only because you aren't reporting it correctly.
I specifically called and asked the unemployment office… I didn’t just guess at this
I’m not an idiot.
It's entirely possible there's a loophole or threshold on reportable income in this particular situation, but saying the "government" instead of "unemployment benefits" or whatever is a bit misleading.
The unemployment office is a wing of the government… the department of labor if you need me to be specific
"The government doesn’t even consider landlord income to be employment income."
But it does, actually, once you start tripping certain thresholds. Which you presumably don't meet, fortunately or unfortunately for you.
It'd be interesting if you owned a whole apartment building and were collecting unemployment but I don't think the system's that broken yet.
What's potentially interesting about your situation is that if you were to be doing gig economy work for the same pay it might well deduct 1:1 from unemployment benefits, but then the people who read your comment are right back to wondering if your situation is due to the actual law or a misfiling because of a speech error in describing the situation.
And obviously this is all complicated by the fact that US unemployment is usually enacted on a state level, so one state government might allow this and another might not.
I looked into gig work to supplement my unemployment and it deducts 75:1 in my state. It’s definitely not worth all the extra work to potentially get another $250 so I’m not doing it. Gig work is my fallback if I can’t find work before the insurance payments run out in June.
In my state, your tenant would not be able to claim renter's credit on their state income taxes because its all being done off the books.
It’s not being done off the books? We have a lease agreement and it’s all above board.
Yall are wildin with your assumptions
Off the books means you aren't reporting it.
I’m reporting it on my taxes.
I called the unemployment office to specifically ask about how rent impacts the insurance payout, and they were explicit that it doesn’t.
It is above board
Because I let someone who was going to otherwise be homeless rent a room for well below market? Damn
The only thing they're really doing wrong is gaslighting people by calling them a "roommate."
Otherwise it's just people surviving under capitalism. OP didn't capture the rental market, that was done by much, much bigger fish.
He's beating the game
Not really... They're just being nicer to a friend than another landlord would be. It's not like the friend is buying equity in their house.
This makes OP a better landlord than most. It also demonstrates how the system is rigged to benefit property owners over others.