Para inversores STR · Ley fiscal de EE. UU.
Registre el tiempo que dedica a gestionar cada alquiler de corta duración. Las horas de su cónyuge se suman a las suyas. Los limpiadores, los coanfitriones y los administradores de la propiedad se registran por separado para que la prueba del IRS de 'más que cualquier otra persona' sea demostrable. Exporte una hoja de cálculo lista para auditoría para su CPA. — Solo ley fiscal de EE. UU. (IRS §469).
Año fiscal
Add a property to start tracking
Pull a property from your portfolio or your saved analyses, or add one manually. You can track different properties at the same time — each has its own log and IRS test progress.
Short-term rentals with average guest stays of seven days or less are not treated as rental real estate for IRS passive-loss purposes — which means STR losses (including depreciation from a cost segregation study) can offset W-2 and other active income, provided the owner materially participates in the activity. This free tracker helps you build the contemporaneous time log the IRS expects, per property and per tax year.
The most reliable test. If you log more than 500 hours of personal participation in the property in a tax year, you materially participate — full stop.
Participate more than 100 hours AND more than any other individual. The tracker logs hours by cleaners, co-hosts, and property managers separately so the comparison is provable.
Under §469, your spouse's participation counts toward your total even if you file separately. Mark a participant as 'spouse' and their entries automatically roll into yours.
One-click export to .xlsx with a Summary tab (totals, IRS test pass/fail) and a full activity log at the bottom. Designed as a clean hand-off for your tax preparer.
Each property is its own activity for material participation purposes, so the tracker scopes by property. Pull from your BNBCalc portfolio or saved analyses, or add a property manually.
Pick a date, category, and hours. Add an optional description (recommended for audit credibility). Use the quick-add chips for common 15-30 minute tasks like guest messages or pricing reviews.
Add cleaners, co-hosts, and property managers as participants. Their hours count against you for the 'more than anyone else' test. Spouse hours pool with yours by default.
One-click .xlsx export with totals, IRS test results, per-participant breakdown, and the complete activity log.
Material participation is the IRS standard for treating short-term rental losses as non-passive — letting you deduct them against W-2 or other active income. The IRS defines seven tests under Treas. Reg. §1.469-5T; STR investors typically rely on Test 1 (500+ hours), Test 3 (100+ hours and more than anyone else), or Test 7 (regular, continuous, substantial involvement).
There is no single number. The most reliable path is 500+ hours of personal participation in a tax year (Test 1). If you cannot reach 500, Test 3 only requires 100+ hours — but you must participate more than any other individual (cleaners, co-hosts, property managers). Spouse hours pool into yours.
Yes. Under IRS rules, the hours your spouse spends on the activity are treated as your hours for material participation purposes, even if you file separately. This tracker lets you mark a participant as a spouse so their entries pool into your total automatically.
Investor-style activities generally do not count: researching properties you do not end up buying, education hours (books, podcasts, courses), and travel time from your primary residence to the rental. Activities tied to managing a specific property you own (or are acquiring) do count.
The tracker generates a contemporaneous time log with dates, hours, descriptions, and participants — the format the IRS expects. The spreadsheet export is designed as a hand-off for your CPA. We still recommend reviewing the log with a tax professional; material participation is fact-specific.
No — the tool is free to use without an account. Your tracker is saved in this browser via localStorage so it survives refreshing the tab. To sync across devices (and download the audit-ready spreadsheet for your CPA), create a free BNBCalc account.
REPS is a separate, higher bar (750+ hours and more than half your working time in real estate trades) that lets long-term rental losses become non-passive. The STR loophole sidesteps REPS by using the 7-day average stay rule plus material participation — a far lower threshold for most investors.
Yes. Sign in to your free BNBCalc account and you'll get access to in-app chat — we'll answer tax-loophole and tracker questions, and we can point you at a vetted CPA partner for situation-specific advice. (We're product folks, not licensed tax preparers — so anything situation-specific gets routed to a CPA.)
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This tracker is record-keeping support, not tax advice. Material participation determinations are fact-specific — review your log with a qualified CPA.