My landlord is renting to me illegally. what do i do?

[Maineac]

Originally Posted by reenzz

Does not change that fact that she is stealing from the taxpayers and committing welfare fraud...a felony.

Absolutely. No argument there, just explaining the conundrum. If it weren't for an underground cash economy, there'd be thousands and thousands more on welfare. I ain't got the answers. How 'bout we just charge them all with felonies, fine the hell out of them, strip them of all their assets, attach their income into the future, and throw them in the new private, for-profit jails?

[maineborzoi]

Originally Posted by sopokay

She's basically asking me to keep it a secret that she's collecting money from me. When I have my appointment to file my taxes she doesn't want me to put that I pay rent to her and just say I'm her roommate. She told me that if social security finds out about this she'll lose benefits because my rent money is income for her. She's using my money to get her hair and nails done. I only make about $760 a month. Trying to live off of $60 as a single mother with with a baby is difficult and I want to confront her about lowering my rent BECAUSE it's illegal in the first place. But if she decides to evict me I don't know if I have any legal standing.

I fail to see why, on any tax form, you state what you pay for rent. One does list a Mortgage but that is because one is paying interest payments on the loan. Only thing required for taxes is the mailing/physical address. And even then- that is only a mailing situation, and not associated with taxes. Ones expenses are listed on any tax form - Federal or State.

Second- if she is receiving money for renting you a place to stay, that is considered "income" by the state. It may or may not affect her benefits, but that is up to the state to decide.
If you do decide to report it, keep in mind you may be looking at needing to find another place to live.

As far as occupancy- one can rent a closet to someone. It only comes into occupancy permits if a seperate dwelling- ie the place you are renting is not attached to a home/previous permits. Only way around that is if the dwelling is " grandfathered", or considered retail space by zone permit.

One last thing=- 700 a month? Are you serious? Surely you can do better in finding a place to live than that price.
( also- what she does with her rent money is her business- not yours ie reference to getting her nails done etc... )

[notaliberal]

Well stated, Maineac. What's this??? The Estate Tax Exclusion just jumped to $5.45 mill??? HUH? That's even more generous than NY!!! What's Maine trying to do, attract more millionaires??? (I am not in that category, by the way, far from it.) We have a special "millionaire tax" here that kicks in after an AGI of a more than a million a year.
Might not be a bad idea for Maine to consider.

[Zymer]

While the Estate Tax exclusion in Maine just jumped to $5,450,000.00 for the top 1% under the lie that "small business and family farms" are getting broken up over "death taxes". Bull$hit. The biggest lie of all. 75% of the people in nursing homes in Maine are on Medicaid (Mainecare). It costs $10,000.00 a month. Homes and family farms are sold to pay to the publicly held, out-of-state nursing home conglomerates, or worse yet, the "non-profit" hospital based systems. The "family camp" flies out the window when Alzheimer's happens. Everything is spent before Medicaid kicks in. The less-than-wealthy leave nothing to their heirs. I see it every day.

Failure to take advantage of legal options to protect assets does not equate to conspiracy. I'm as cynical as anyone can be when it comes to the government and those in its employ, by virtue of having worked for/with them, but I'm also not blind to reality. There *are* legal options to avoid this occurrence, but they must be used in advance. Just because some people remain ignorant as to their options, does not mean that there are none.

[Maineac]

Originally Posted by Zymer

Failure to take advantage of legal options to protect assets does not equate to conspiracy. I'm as cynical as anyone can be when it comes to the government and those in its employ, by virtue of having worked for/with them, but I'm also not blind to reality. There *are* legal options to avoid this occurrence, but they must be used in advance. Just because some people remain ignorant as to their options, does not mean that there are none.

100% correct. A lot of people are simply too cheap to do what they should do well ahead of time. How do you fix it as a politician? Keep screaming "death tax" and raise the exclusion rate to make it look like you've done something. You've just made it easier for the mega wealthy to pass the kingdom on to Todd and his spoiled sister. The only ones who benefit are those with WAY more than 99% of Mainers.

Since around 1970, wealth in the U.S. has been slowly, methodically concentrated in something like 300 families. The rationale for Estate Taxes, going back hundreds of years to feudal England, was to prevent the accumulation of all wealth in a few individual families - the creation of "Kingdoms" and the perpetuation of the "golden rule" (he who has the gold, makes the rules). Politicians today are paid by these "kingdom makers" to make certain that all wealth moves upward on the financial pyramid on the backs of everyone below. It seems to be working.

[deerislesmile]

FYI: You only have to provide her information if you are applying for the Property Tax Fairness Credit. Whether or not you want to do that is up to you, but it is not necessarily required as part of filing out your usual income tax form.

[mileena]

People:

in order for Maine renters to get their annual rent rebate from the state, you need to list where and whom you are renting from. They want the landlord's SS number to see if the landlord is hiding rental income from the state.

You also can get both SSDI and SSI. When I lived there I got SSDI and the $10 SSI state supplement.

Unreported rental income (which is unearned) will not affect the LL's SSDI, but it will affect any Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8), SSI, SNAP (food stamps), medicaid, lifeline, taxes owed, etc.

[ftgrfr]

I believe the landlord is taking advantage of you. She is asking you to forgo all of your entitlements, while she cheats the system. If she is not reporting the income from your "rent money", then I believe she is committing federal tax fraud as well as welfare fraud. That would be OK as it is between her and the government. But now she has brought you into it by virtue of her disclosing her cheating to to you.

That was her mistake, now you have the power.