Oakland house hacking utilities / tax question

[Dan Bennett]

Hi Folks,

My first investment is a duplex in Oakland, CA and I'm house hacking.  There's a law here in Oakland that says any income I receive from my tenants is taxed.  I'm currently paying all the utilities because the units have shared meters, and we have worked out percentages of the utilities that each unit (mine and the tenants')  are responsible for in the lease.  When a bill comes in, I share it with them, and they re-imburse me for their contractual percentage of it.

I just wanted know if anyone knows if there's a legal way to not treat the payment I receive from the tenants for the shared utilities as 'income' given that it's really a loan that I give them, and they are just paying it back.

Any locals with experience that can help a newbie out?

Thanks for any insights!

-Dan

@J. Martin I read that you might be a local expert, not sure if this will reach you or not.