If you have a home that you both rent out and use personally, you have a tax-code-defined vacation home.

Under the tax code rules, that vacation home is either

a personal residence, or

a rental property.

Personal Residence

The tax code classifies your vacation home as a personal residence if1

you rent it out for more than 14 days during the year, and

your personal use during the year exceeds the greater of (a) 14 days or (b) 10 percent of the days you rent the home out at fair market rates.

Count only actual days of rental and personal occupancy.

Disregard days of vacancy, and disregard days that you spend mainly on repair and maintenance activities.2

“Personal use” generally means use by the owner (that would be you), certain family members, and any other party (family or otherwise) who pays less than fair market rental rates.

If your vacation home is used by another person under a reciprocal arrangement (e.g., “I use your place and you use mine”), such use is considered personal use. That is the case whether or not you charge the other person ... Log in to view full article.