# Questions about renting out rooms in a leased condo



## chrisddickey (Nov 14, 2014)

I have been in Penang for a while now, and up until now, I have been renting a room from somebody else. I am now planning on signing a lease on a condo unit. It is a three bedroom unit and I only need one, so was planning on renting out the other two bedrooms. 

Are there any legal, tax, or otherwise considerations I need to worry about? In either Malaysia or the USA?

At present I pay US taxes on my investment income (all in US financial institutions). I don't pay or file anything with Malaysian authorities since I have had no income that is not US income. I am concerned that this might be considered Malaysian income and require me to file something with Malaysian tax authorities in order to obey the law.

Just to be clear, my name is going to be the only one on the lease, and renters will be paying me money, which I will then be using to pay the lease. 

It seems like the most reasonable interpretation of this is that the rent is not income to me, it is just 3 people each paying their share of the rent. However I suspect that the USA IRS interpretation would be that I had rental income each month, but (hopefully) offsetting expenditures each month and they would insist that I file my taxes that way. I will look into that elsewhere (unless somebody here has anything to say about that part of it). 

Now I imagine that it is fairly unlikely that ether the IRS or the Malaysian authorities would ever bother asking questions about how I pay my rent, but I do prefer to do things the correct way if that is convenient and not too expensive. 

Is there anything that I need to do/file to keep on the right side of Malaysian law?
Any other pitfalls I need to worry about?

Thanks


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## chong (Feb 16, 2012)

No necessary.... It's common for malaysian to share the rent/split rental/sub letting rooms to other occupant

Your landlord 'mostly' would be very happy if your rental is being paid promptly every month and pls make sure the person sharing the rental payment would look after the unit/apartment


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