Hello. Anyone else here write-off the % paid to Peerspace? I have a new accountant and she’s suggesting that since it’s essentially revenue paid for “advertising” here.
If you counted your full price prior to percentage, you can deduct it. But if you have only reported your neat earning you cannot. To do so would be double-dipping. You come out the same either way.
1 Like
Yes. I would use the receipt from the booking that shows the full fee minus the percent paid to Peerspace.
When I take in a booking from Peerspace (or any other 3rd party site) I put the full fee into my accounting spread sheet as well as the fee paid. I like to see the thousands in fees I pay each month/year… or I should say “cringe” at the fees paid 
I’ve just never filed the receipt to claim the fees on taxes before.
You can actually categorize them as fees and that will be deductible.
But as far as advertising is concerned, I count my subscription to Photoshop since that’s essentially what I use it for. Or if you have a website or anything like that.
It’s a fee. Taxes are paid on profits for the business unless there’s some sort of asset involved and then that’s a little bit more complicated.
If you paid taxes on gross receipts, there could be situations where your business literally cost you money to run after you pay taxes. Some businesses run on 3 percent profit. Paying 30 percent in gross receipts income tax would put about 95% of businesses out of business. You should also be writing off some portion of the rent you pay in my opinion but I’m not a professional so check with a tax advisor. But don’t be obtuse and make up rules in your head especially that cost you money. Listen to experts and not people on a forum who don’t do taxes for living.
I can say the basics of the business tax concept is income minus experiences equals profit and you pay taxes on profit not on total income.
But Google “understanding business taxes” and spend a good 20 hours doing a deep dive on taxes if you are going to be running a business. If you don’t write off the 20k a year in peerspace fees in California that could cost you 10k in overpaid taxes depending on your income bracket.
That’s money that goes to funding corrupt politicians, the drug trade, Jeffrey Epstein types, fueling the homeless epidemic, and making sure housing is never affordable. Every dollar you pay in tax in California (or federally) destroys lives and business so it’s your duty to pay as little as possible.
Best,
-Anthony
1 Like
I absolutely do write off the fees. We’re paying 18 percent to peerspace for promoting our space that’s money we would normally receive in person bookings so it is an expense at the end of the day.
Hi Geoffrey, I’ve been hosting for 7 years and I never even considered this. It makes sense though, peerspace charges us hosts a ridiculous 15-18%. You could consider this the cost of advertising your listing on this platform. I was curious, so I started googling if Airbnb hosts write off the 3% in fees Airbnb charges. It does seem like a lot of Airbnb hosts do write off this fee. This would be a HUGE deduction. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but if you made $100k on your peerspace 1099-k form, and peerspace already took 15% of those earnings, that’s a $15k tax deduction.
Did you file your peerspace income as Rental income (Schedule E) or Self-Imployment income (Schedule C)? The obvious benefit of schedule E is no self-employment tax. However, self-employment you have more deduction options and it can count as earned income toward a IRA or 401k.
Hi Yvonne, I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying here. If peerspace sent you a 1099-k, from my understanding the number they give you is what you were paid. Meaning that 15-18% fee has already been subtracted, but that 15-18% is money that you paid peerspace to advertise your listing. So why can’t you write it off as an advertising fee? How is that double-dipping?
Anthony: If you claim the gross amount of the rental prior to Peerspace taking their fees, then you can deduct the fees. However, iIf you claim in income only the amount that Peerspace sent to you, then their fees are already deducted. To then claim the fees as an expense would be subtracting them from what Peerspace already sent you–therefore, double dipping.
To further give an example: If the rental was $1000 and Peerspace fees are 15%, then they send you $850. Their fees are already deducted. If you then claim that their fees are $150 and deduct them again, that would make your income to be $700. That would be double dipping and would not be accurate.
Hope that clears that up. By the way–I did confirm this with my accountant.
P.S. I don’t actually know whether the 1099 is the payments they made or the amount prior to payment. The way to know would be to add up your income from Peerspace for the year and compare it. Since I receive rental income from more than one source, I simply add up the income I receive and do not then deduct the fees.
Thanks Yvonne. I’m going to call peerspace and confirm if the number they sent on the 1099-k is the amount they paid me or the total amount including their fees. I still feel like we should be able to write off those fees though as an advertising deduction. I know Airbnb host write off the 3% fees that they are charged. We are paying peerspace to advertise our spaces. How is it any different from paying Squarespace to advertise your business? You would obviously write off the cost of a website.
Perhaps I have left off one important sentence in my explanation. When you get the net fee, it means that Peerspace has already deducted the fee. That’s why you can’t deduct it again.