Vacation Home Rentals: The 14-Day and 10% Personal Use Rules
Published November 7, 2026
Publication 527 (2025), Residential Rental Property, explains how to report rental income and expenses for a home you rent out. It also covers a home you use yourself. If you rent a vacation home and use it for personal purposes too, extra rules apply. This guide explains the tests in chapter 5 of the publication. It is general information. It is not advice about your case.
Why personal use matters
If you use a dwelling unit for personal purposes, you must divide your expenses between rental use and personal use. It says your rental expenses are generally no more than your total expenses times a fraction. The bottom number is the total days the unit is used. The top number is the days it is actually rented at a fair rental amount. Only your rental expenses go on Schedule E. Some personal expenses may be deductible on Schedule A if you itemize. The publication's examples split costs such as mortgage interest and heat in the same way.
The home test
You must also decide whether the unit counts as a home. The amount of rental expenses you can deduct may be limited if it does. It says you use a dwelling unit as a home during the tax year if you use it for personal purposes more than the greater of:
- 14 days, or
- 10% of the total days it is rented to others at a fair rental amount.
A dwelling unit includes a house, apartment, condominium, mobile home, boat, or vacation home. Property used only as a hotel, motel, or inn is not a dwelling unit.
What counts as a day of personal use
A day of personal use is any day the unit is used by an owner. It is also a day used by a family member of an owner, unless that family member uses it as a main home and pays a fair rental amount. Family includes your spouse, siblings, ancestors, and lineal descendants. A day also counts when someone uses the unit under an arrangement that lets you use another unit. A day also counts when someone uses it for less than a fair rental amount.
It also covers donated use. You have personal use if you donate the use of the unit to a charity, the charity sells that use at a fundraising event, and the buyer uses the unit.
A worked example from the publication
It describes a beach cottage available from June 1 through August 31, which is 92 days. No renter was found for the first week of August, so that week is not rental use. A renter rented the cottage for July at a fair rental amount. That renter let you use it for a weekend in July with no reduction in rent. That weekend is rental use for the expense split, because you received a fair rental amount for it. Your family used the cottage for 14 days in late May.
The cottage was rented for 85 days, so the total use is 99 days. Your rental expenses are 85/99, or 86%, of the cottage expenses. For the home test, the July weekend counts as personal use, so there are 16 personal days and 83 rental days. Because personal use is more than 14 days and more than 10% of rental days, the publication treats the cottage as a home.
This example shows why the two steps differ. The expense split uses all the days the unit was used. The home test compares personal days with rental days. Because the counts are different, check both steps before you file.
What to do next
Keep a calendar for each year. Mark each day the owner or a family member used the unit. Mark each day it was rented, with the rent charged. Then count the days before you divide any expense. If the home test applies, read the chapter 5 rules before you file. For the basics of reporting rent, see Rental Income and Schedule E: The Basics. For interest on a home loan, see Mortgage Interest Deduction and Form 1098. If the property has a mix of personal and rental use, consider a tax professional.
Sources: Sources: IRS, Publication 527 (2025), Residential Rental Property (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p527.pdf) This is general information, not advice about your specific return.
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