Question about owner occupied 4-plex and owner paying rent

[Leslie Jerue]

Hello All,

I'm still learning the 4plex game but recently purchased a 4plex in Alaska back in March 2016 and moved into my unit in May 2016.  There were already existing tenants and I had to give one the boot to move into the unit.  Currently, I am paying rent like I always have but am curious if my "rent" counts towards the property income. If not, will it hurt me during taxes if I don't pay a month or two of my portion of the rent? For instance, I used part of my 401k for the down payment and it would be nice if I could use a portion of my "rent" to pay down my 401k loan quicker without it hurting me at tax time. 

Since I've not had to do taxes on it yet I'm not really sure how this all works.  When I've tried to research I'm not finding a lot of information. I will probably have a few more questions about how to prepare for tax time and the like so I apologize in advance.  I am also not sure if this is the correct forum. 

Thank you for any and all assistance and information.  If there are pages that would possibly answer these or future questions I'd be happy to read those before I post any further questions.

Leslie J