Personal use of your short-term rental: the 14-day rule and beyond

Updated September 2026. Many American short-term rentals double as somebody's getaway: the lake cabin the family uses in July, the ski condo kept free for the holidays. Mixing the two is perfectly legal, but the tax code watches it closely. Section 280A of the Internal Revenue Code decides whether your property is taxed as a rental, as a residence, or as something in between, and a handful of personal nights can change the answer. Here is how the rules work, drawn from the statute and IRS Publication 527 (2025).

The key question: do you use the unit as a home?

Under section 280A(d)(1), unchanged since the 1976 tax year, you use a dwelling unit as a residence during the year if your personal use exceeds the greater of 14 days or 10% of the days it is rented at a fair rental price. A property rented 200 days at market rates can therefore absorb up to 20 personal days without becoming a residence for this purpose; a property rented 100 days has room for 14.

What counts as a personal day

The count is broader than your own nights. Publication 527 and the Schedule E instructions treat a day as personal use when the unit is used by:

• you or anyone else who owns an interest in it;
• a member of your family, unless the unit is that relative's main home and they pay a fair rental price;
• anyone under an arrangement that lets you use another dwelling unit, such as a house swap;
• anyone paying less than a fair rental price.

The friend who stays at a discount, the cousin who pays full price for a weekend and the swap with another owner are all personal days. The exception owners can use is this one: a day spent working substantially full time on repairs and maintenance is not a personal day, even if family members enjoy the property that day. Keep proof of the work done.

Outcome 1: rented fewer than 15 days

If you use the property as a home and rent it for fewer than 15 days in the year, section 280A(g) applies, and Publication 527 says it directly: do not include the rent in your income. You also deduct no rental expenses. The rule is often nicknamed after the Augusta golf tournament, when local residents rent out their homes for a single week. For owners who rent only around one local event, such as a festival, a race or a big football weekend, it is an entirely legitimate advantage. Mortgage interest and property taxes may still be deductible under the rules that apply to homes.

Outcome 2: a home rented 15 days or more

Here the rental income is taxable and expenses must be split. Section 280A(e) limits deductible rental expenses to the share that the days rented at a fair rental bear to the total days the unit is used. Vacant days count on neither side. In a year with 90 rented days and 30 personal days, three quarters of the shared expenses belong to the rental.

There is also a ceiling. When the unit counts as your home, rental expenses cannot produce a loss to set against your other income. Deductions are taken in a prescribed order up to the rental income, and the disallowed excess carries forward to the next year, where it can again be used only within the same limit.

Outcome 3: a real rental with some personal use

If personal use stays within the 14-day or 10% limit — the same two-part test since 1976 — the property is not used as a home. Expenses are still divided between rental days and personal days, but section 280A does not cap a rental loss. That loss is then governed by the ordinary passive activity rules, including the separate treatment of properties whose average guest stay is seven days or less.

Planning the calendar

• Choose your category before the year starts, not in December when the days have already been used.
• Do not assume a relative who pays full rate becomes a guest. Family use is personal use unless the unit is that relative's main home.
• Keep a day-by-day log: rented days with the booking reference, personal days, maintenance days with the work done, and vacant days.
• Watch discounted stays. A generous discount for a friend can turn a rental day into a personal day.
• Check the other rulebooks too. Local permits and association rules sometimes impose minimum stays or owner-occupancy conditions that interact with how you use the property.

The operator's angle

For a managed property, owner stays should go through the same calendar as guest bookings, clearly tagged, so the year-end count is a report rather than a reconstruction. It also protects revenue: owner nights blocked in peak weeks cost far more than the same nights in the shoulder season. When we plan a calendar with an owner, we look at both the family wish list and where the tax thresholds fall.

If you want to combine family use and rental income without surprises, we study every request and tell you honestly whether and how we can help. This summary of section 280A and Publication 527 is general information, not tax advice; confirm your own situation with a CPA.