How can I make Schedule E to be non-passive income?

anguyen3010
anguyen3010 Member Posts: 2 Newcomer
in Filing my taxes

I have an airbnb rental. My average rental days is less than 7 days and I actively participated in the business. I read up on airbnb reporting guidance that I should report my rental activities on Schedule E. However, when I use schedule E in FreeTaxUSA, it's default to be passive income. What do I need to do to make it non-passive?

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Answers

  • Henry
    Henry FreeTaxUSA Agent Posts: 109
    edited March 2024

    Hi anguyen3010! It sounds like your Airbnb keeps you pretty busy. Unfortunately, according to the IRS, rental income is generally considered passive income, even if you materially participate, unless you are a qualified real estate professional.

    You will be asked if you are a real estate professional in the software. You'll see that screen populate near the end of the Income menu after you enter Schedule E information. If you indicate that you are a real estate professional, then any Schedule E losses won't be subject to passive activity loss restrictions.

    You can refer to pg 6 of IRS Publication 925 to see the qualifications to be considered a real estate professional.

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  • Phaser
    Phaser Member Posts: 2 Newcomer

    I respectfully disagree with the answer provided by Henry. This topic has been well researched by various tax professionals and attorneys. It's accepted by pretty much everybody that if the rental activity is for short-term rental (under 7 days) and if the partnership member is materially participating in the business, Schedule E losses are considered active and can be used to offset other active income such as W2 wages.

    Here is the actual copy and paste from Publication 925.

    "Exceptions. Your activity isn’t a rental activity if any of the following apply.
    1. The average period of customer use of the property is 7 days or less."

    I like FreeTaxUSA, but if it keeps this mistake unfixed, I will have no choice but to go back to TurboTax. Please, FreeTaxUSA, please get your tax experts to review this and fix the software!!!

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  • anguyen3010
    anguyen3010 Member Posts: 2 Newcomer

    Hi @Phaser, I am glad to hear that my understanding of rental income being non-passive is not completely incorrect.

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  • Phaser
    Phaser Member Posts: 2 Newcomer

    @anguyen3010, unfortunately my opinion and your opinion don't mean anything.

    I am in the same boat as you were last year — I need to take the rental loss (through material participation) to offset my W2 income, but FreeTaxUSA's software doesn't allow that. It's very unfortunate, and I may have no choice but going back to TurboTax where I fled from.

    By the way, FYI, you used the phrase "actively participated" in your post last year. Active Participation and Material Participation are 2 different definitions and lead to different tax treatment. Active Participation is easier to be eligible for, but it gives you a cap on how much passive loss can be used to offset against active income. That amount decreases if your AGI is above $100k and disappears if AGI is above $150k. Material Participation has a higher bar to meet, but if you meet it, there is no AGI threshold.

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