Landlord Law


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Tenant's Penchant for Snippets of Paper

Issuing receipts for rent paid

I'm in the middle of an argument with a tenant of mine who is demanding I issue her receipts for rent when she presents me with a check. She says she needs to write off her rent on her taxes. I'm telling her that's not possible -- I travel a lot and am also worried about the occasional bounced check -- but she insists. She says there is something called the California Renter's Credit or similar and believes that a receipt is required to get tax credit. What should I do?

Keep on not doing what you are not doing now. Indeed, the Golden State did reinstitute its Renters' Tax Credit a while back, on January 1, 1998. Nothing in the statute, however, requires tenants to have receipts for their rent payments issued on the spot by the landlord.

If by the strangest of happenstances, the tenant is challenged by the Franchise Tax Board as to her claim of a credit, her canceled checks, made out to you, would be all the proof she would need. Of course, the IRS, with its infinite penchant for twisting its own rules to its own convenience, could rear up and claim that those monthly payments were for something else. But honestly, a signed declaration from you, that you indeed were her landlord for the stated period and at the stated rent, would take care of that.

Explain this to the tenant -- along with your willingness to take on the role of Penner of Declarations to the IRS if the need arises. That should calm the raging rental waters.

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