To meet the real estate professional status requirements, you must work at least 750 hours during the tax year in a real estate trade or business. Additionally, more than half of your annual working hours must be in that real estate trade or business. That means you can’t qualify if you work a full-time job.

What qualifies as a real estate professional for tax purposes?

A taxpayer qualifies as a real estate professional for any year the taxpayer meets both of the following requirements: (1) more than half of the personal services performed in all trades or businesses during the tax year were performed in real property trades or businesses in which the taxpayer materially participated; …

Is the 750 hour test applied to real estate professionals?

But, once a taxpayer qualifies as a real estate professional, the requirements for material participation are applied as to each separate activity absent an aggregation election. But, the key point is that the 750-hour test is not applied as to each separate activity. To have the IRS actually follow the statute is a big help to many taxpayers.

How many hours do real estate professionals work per year?

Participation for more than 100 hours during the year and no one else participates more; For multiple non-rental trade or business activities, participation (but not material participation) exceeds 100 hours in each activity and, in the aggregate, exceeds 500 hours;

What are the requirements to be a real estate professional?

To be a real estate professional, a taxpayer must provide more than one-half of his or her total personal services in real property trades or businesses in which he or she materially participates and perform more than 750 hours of services during the tax year in real property trades or businesses.

Can a real estate professional add all time spent on rentals?

If this election is made, the real estate professional can add all of their time spent on all of the rental activities together for purposes of the 750-hour test. But, if the election is not made, the material participation test must be satisfied with respect to each activity.