The short answer: a one-property vacation rental needs a one-page annual statement that starts from gross bookings, not bank deposits, shows the platform’s fees as an expense, keeps occupancy taxes out of income, treats deposits you hold as a liability, and splits the mortgage payment into interest and principal. Get those five lines right and the rest is ordinary bookkeeping: cleaning, supplies, utilities, insurance, repairs. This page gives the statement layout, the five accounts that are wrong in most files we open, a payout-clearing method that reconciles in minutes, and the short list your CPA needs from you. It is bookkeeping, not tax advice.
A year-end statement for one property should fit on a page and read top to bottom like this. The column on the right is where each number comes from.
| Line | What goes in it | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Gross rental income | Nightly price plus cleaning and other fees you charge, for stays in the year | Platform earnings report, by stay date |
| Platform service fees | The host fee the platform deducted | Platform earnings report |
| Direct-booking income | Stays booked outside a platform, gross | Your invoices and bank deposits |
| Cleaning and turnover | Cleaners, laundry, restocking between guests | Bills, bank and card |
| Supplies | Toiletries, linens, small household items | Receipts, card |
| Utilities, internet, streaming | Everything the guest uses | Bills |
| HOA, insurance, property tax | Fixed costs of holding the property | Statements, escrow analysis |
| Repairs and maintenance | Fixing what exists (not improvements) | Bills |
| Management fees | A co-host or manager’s cut | Management statement |
| Mortgage interest | Interest only, from the lender’s year-end statement | Form 1098 / lender statement |
| Depreciation | Left as a placeholder for the CPA | CPA |
| Net operating result | Income less the lines above | Calculated |
Two things are deliberately missing from income: occupancy taxes the platform collected and remitted, and deposits you still owe back. Both are covered below.
1. Rental income booked from the bank deposit. The payout is net of the platform’s fee, so booking the deposit as income understates both income and expenses. Airbnb’s service-fee article describes two structures. Under the split fee, most hosts pay 3%. Under the single fee, which Airbnb says it is moving all home hosts to, the whole fee comes out of the host payout: most hosts pay 15.5%, the rest typically 14–16%. Either way the fee is a percentage of the nightly price plus the fees you charge, excluding taxes.
Example math: a stay priced at $1,000 plus a $150 cleaning fee. Split fee at 3%: fee $34.50, payout $1,115.50. Single fee at 15.5%: fee $178.25, payout $971.75. In both cases the statement shows $1,150 of income and the fee as an expense. Booking $971.75 as income hides $178.25 of cost your CPA needs to see.
2. Occupancy taxes counted as income. In Florida, Airbnb’s tax article says guests pay the 6% transient rental tax and the county discretionary surtax (0.5–1.5%) on stays of 182 nights or shorter, and Airbnb collects and remits them, plus county tourist development taxes in the counties it lists: Broward 6%, Miami-Dade 2% plus a 1% sports-facility tax and a 3% convention development tax (the 2% and 1% do not apply in Miami Beach, Bal Harbour and Surfside; the 3% does not apply in Bal Harbour and Surfside), Orange 6%, and others. Those taxes are paid by the guest and never reach your payout, so they are not income and not an expense. Where the platform does not collect, the article is explicit that the host must assess and remit the rest. Any tax you collect yourself, on direct bookings or in an unlisted county, is a liability until you pay it over.
3. The whole mortgage payment booked as an expense. The monthly payment is interest, principal and usually escrow. Only interest is an expense. Principal reduces the loan balance. Escrow is a prepaid that turns into property tax and insurance when the lender pays them. Post the payment to three places, or post it to the loan and correct interest to the lender’s year-end statement in December.
4. Deposits treated as income. A refundable damage deposit you take on a direct booking is money you owe back. Book it to a liability, Guest deposits held, and move only the part you keep for damage to income, with the damage bill beside it.
5. Owner-paid bills that never made it in. The owner buys a new mattress on a personal card, or pays the pest-control invoice from a joint account. If it is not in the rental’s books, it is not on the statement. Record each one as an expense paid by an owner contribution, and keep a simple log of personal-use days; how those days affect the return is your CPA’s call, but they cannot make it without the count.
Platforms pay after the stay starts, not when the guest books. Airbnb’s payout article says stays of 28 nights or more pay in monthly installments starting within one business day after check-in, and a US ACH direct deposit takes about 3 business days to arrive after release. So a guest who checks in on 30 December pays you in January.
Set up one account, Airbnb clearing (or one per platform). Each month, from the earnings report, post gross income by stay date to the clearing account’s debit side and the platform fee as an expense against it. When the payout lands in the bank, match it to the clearing account. At month-end the clearing account should equal payouts released but not yet received, nothing more. If it holds anything else, a stay was booked twice or a payout was reversed, and you will see it that day instead of in April.
A year-end handoff for one rental is short: the one-page statement above, the platform earnings report for the year, the lender’s interest statement, closing papers or the depreciation schedule from last year’s return, the list of improvements (a new roof is not a repair), the personal-use day count, and the average length of stay. Which form the rental belongs on, and how depreciation is figured, are tax questions; the bookkeeper’s job is to make sure the numbers behind them are complete and tie to the bank.
No. The deposit is net of the platform’s service fee, so record gross income by stay date from the earnings report and the fee as an expense, then match the deposit to a clearing account. Otherwise the statement understates both income and costs.
Where Airbnb collects and remits them, the guest pays them and they never reach your payout, so they are neither income nor expense. Taxes you collect yourself, on direct bookings or in jurisdictions the platform does not cover, are a liability until you remit them.
Only the interest part. Principal reduces the loan, and escrow is a prepaid that becomes property tax and insurance when the lender pays them. Use the lender’s year-end statement to set the interest figure.
You need separate tracking: its own bank account if possible, and at least its own class or location in QuickBooks, so the rental’s income and costs do not mix with household spending. That is what makes a one-page statement possible at year-end.
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Founder of Numerawise Solutions, established MMXXIV in Atlanta. Intuit ProAdvisor Gold tier. Former Intuit Technical Support engineer. Has personally led two hundred accounting software conversions for US small businesses since founding the practice. Reachable directly at [email protected].