A one-page audit of the tax logic in RentReel — so you can validate what's right, flag what's wrong, and suggest what's missing. Built by an STR operator who cares about doing this correctly.
What the client sees. Poke around properties, Schedule E, loophole tracker.
👀Exactly what YOU see when a client shares their books. Sample data. Try the Excel export.
📋REPS, §469, cost seg, Schedule E line mapping — with citations and confidence levels.
STR-first bookkeeping SaaS. Ingests bank + credit card + PMS (Hospitable/Guesty/Hostaway/OwnerRez/Lodgify) + cleaning (Turno) + mileage CSVs, auto-categorizes to Schedule E line items, and layers a Tax Loophole Tracker (REPS + §469 material participation + Cost Seg estimator) on top.
Two paths — pick whichever fits your firm's workflow.
Client generates a URL from their Settings page. Data is encoded in the URL fragment — never hits our server. Open in any browser. See properties, Schedule E, loophole status.
Best for: quick year-end reviews. Zero friction. No login. Client controls what you see + revokes access by generating a new link.
Sign up at app.rentreel.co with promo code CPAREVIEW — free lifetime Pro+ Tax. Explore full functionality, add your own test properties, run Excel exports.
Best for: validating logic yourself + comparing to your own workpapers. This is how we'd like you to review it.
Every rule below has an IRC citation, an implementation summary, our confidence level, and a specific question we'd love your take on. Circle back on anything.
Taxpayer or spouse must satisfy both tests: (1) 750+ hours/year in real property trades/businesses AND (2) more than 50% of all personal services in RE. If either spouse qualifies on a joint return, ALL rental losses become non-passive.
Hours Log tracks entries per property with categories (Repairs, Management, Cleaning, Guest Comm, Turnover, Maintenance, Admin). Dashboard shows running total vs 750 threshold + percentage of total work hours (user enters non-RE hours). Cross-references with mileage-derived hour estimates (30 mph avg) and cleaning/repair days from bank data via Hours Reconstruction Wizard.
Rentals with average customer use ≤ 7 days are NOT "rental activity" under §469 — they're a trade or business. If the taxpayer materially participates in that trade, losses are non-passive, and no REPS is needed. Material participation = any of 7 tests, easiest are: 500+ hrs/yr, or 100+ hrs AND more than any other individual, or "substantially all" of participation.
Per-property average stay calculated from reservation data (PMS import + Hospitable). Properties tagged STR only if avg ≤ 7 days. Runs all 7 material participation tests per property + shows PASS/FAIL for each. Tracks "Other Participants" (cleaner, contractor, co-host) auto-detected from bank/Turno data with total hours per participant. Aggregate Election toggle available for portfolio-wide test.
REPS-qualified taxpayers may elect to aggregate all rental activities as a single activity for material participation testing. Once elected, it's binding for all future years until formally revoked with IRS consent (revenue procedure).
Toggle in Loophole Tracker → aggregate mode sums hours across all properties into a single 500-hr test. Shows the largest single Other Participant's total across all properties (correct denominator for the "more than any other" test). Currently DOES NOT auto-generate the §469(g) election statement — user must file it separately with their return.
Cost segregation studies reclassify components of a building from 27.5-year (residential rental) or 39-year (commercial) property to 5-year, 7-year, and 15-year property. Combined with bonus depreciation under §168(k), a portion of the building's cost can be deducted in Year 1. 2026 bonus rate: 60% (phase-down from 100%).
Cost Seg Estimator only (not an actual study). User enters cost basis; we assume ~25% reclassified to short-life property (industry rule-of-thumb from CSSI/Madison SPECS studies), apply 60% bonus depr Year 1 to that portion, show projected Year 1 write-off + federal tax savings at user's marginal rate (default 32%). Explicitly labeled "Estimator — real study required for filing." Referral hooks to Madison SPECS / Cost Seg Authority planned.
Residential rental buildings depreciate over 27.5 years straight-line, mid-month convention, on the depreciable basis (cost minus land value). Commercial: 39 years. Reported on Form 4562 and Schedule E Line 18.
User enters property value, cost basis, and land value in Properties Hub. Portfolio Net Worth calculation uses these. We DO NOT currently auto-compute Schedule E Line 18 depreciation — user (or CPA) must compute it externally and enter as a manual expense line. This is a documented gap. Amortization schedule for mortgage split IS computed (declining balance) for the Line 12 interest portion.
Only the interest portion of a mortgage payment is deductible on Schedule E Line 12. Principal is not deductible. Servicer-issued Form 1098 is the tax-authoritative document. Escrow held on behalf of the taxpayer for property tax/insurance flows through to Lines 9 and 16 when disbursed.
If user uploads Form 1098 PDF, Claude vision extracts the interest paid amount + property tax + points + escrow → those numbers populate Line 12, 16, 9. If no 1098, we fall back to a declining-balance amortization ESTIMATE using entered mortgage balance × rate ÷ 12 per payment. Every property with an amortization estimate shows a yellow "Estimate only — reconcile with 1098 at year-end" callout.
Business use of vehicle deductible via standard mileage rate (67¢/mi for 2024, adjusts annually) OR actual expenses. Drives must be documented contemporaneously with date, purpose, destination, mileage. Reported on Schedule E Line 6.
Generic mileage parser accepts CSVs from MileIQ, Everlance, Stride, Hurdlr, and Excel logs. Each drive is auto-attributed to a property using the drive destination address matched against the property's city/state/street. Drives without a matched property remain unassigned for user review. Rate is user-configurable (default 67¢). Total business miles × rate = Line 6 amount.
Rental real estate can qualify for the 20% QBI deduction if it rises to the level of a §162 trade or business. Rev. Proc. 2019-38 provides a safe harbor: 250+ hours of rental services per year on the enterprise + separate books + contemporaneous records. STRs that qualify as §469 trade/business via ≤7-day avg stay generally also qualify.
Not yet. This is a known feature-request gap. We track hours + separate books per property already, so building a QBI-safe-harbor eligibility indicator is straightforward — we just haven't shipped it.
Home office regularly + exclusively used for managing rentals qualifies for a deduction. Simplified: $5/sq ft up to 300 sq ft ($1,500 max). Actual: percentage of home expenses (utilities, insurance, depreciation). Sched E generally doesn't allow home office — reported instead on Sched A or Form 8829 depending on trade/business status.
Not implemented. Would need a "home office" section in Properties (or Settings) capturing square footage + method. Complexity: routing to correct form depends on whether the rental activity is a trade or business (Sched C-like) or pure rental (Sched E — no home office allowed directly).
Personal residence rented for ≤14 days/year generates tax-free rental income — no reporting required. Common play: business rents owner's home for board meetings at market rate. Requires market-rate documentation + genuine business purpose.
Not implemented. Could add a "Personal Residence — Augusta Rule tracker" that tracks rental days on user's primary home + flags when approaching 14-day threshold + reminds them to invoice their LLC at market rate.
Auto-categorization rules for common expenses. Users can override any transaction. New payees learn from a single manual categorization (payee-to-category rule stored per user).
| Sched E | Category | How we detect | Example vendors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line 3 | Rents Received | PMS reservations · direct bookings · platform payouts (GROSS, not net) | Hospitable · Airbnb · Vrbo · Booking |
| Line 6 | Auto + Travel | Mileage CSV × standard rate + airline / rideshare / rental car / hotel / gas / parking | MileIQ · Delta · Uber · Hertz · Marriott |
| Line 9 | Insurance | Insurance-vendor regex + escrow-disbursed portion of 1098 extract | Nationwide · Foremost · TranSource |
| Line 10 | Cleaning | Turno reservations + venmo/manual cleaners tagged via learn-rule | Turno · Derksen Property · Venmo-to-cleaner |
| Line 11 | Management | PMS fees · dynamic-pricing · analytics · AI · HOA · platform host service fees (auto-split from gross) | Hospitable · PriceLabs · Beyond · HOA |
| Line 12 | Mortgage Interest | Form 1098 (auto-extract via Claude vision) — else declining-balance amortization estimate | Selene · Newrez · Shellpoint · Rocket · JPMC |
| Line 13 | Other Interest + Professional | Business card interest charges · title/escrow/closing services | Amex APR · First American Title · Old Republic |
| Line 14 | Repairs | Contractor keywords · home-improvement retailers · trade descriptors | Home Depot · Lowe's · Plumbing · HVAC · Roofing |
| Line 15 | Supplies | Manual entry (fallback for uncategorized supplies) | User-tagged supplies |
| Line 16 | Taxes | Property tax escrow (1098) · occupancy/transient/lodging tax · LLC annual filings | County tax · TOT · Sunbiz · Sec of State |
| Line 17 | Utilities | Utility-vendor regex (electric, gas, water, internet) | FPL · Spectrum · Columbia Gas · Water Dept |
| Line 18 | Depreciation | NOT auto-computed — user or CPA enters manually | Manual |
| Line 19 | Other Expenses | Meals (50%) · Software subs · Anything not caught by other rules | DoorDash · Adobe · Google Workspace |
Rules we don't handle (yet), or where we defer to CPA judgment. Would love your priority ranking.
User enters property value + land basis but we don't yet auto-compute 27.5-yr SL depreciation on the Schedule E. Left as a manual line for CPA review. Should we ship this?
We track hours + separate books per property (both safe-harbor requirements). Building an "eligible for QBI safe harbor" flag would be one screen. Priority?
When a client's rental produces a passive loss they can't use this year (below REPS + non-material-participant), that loss carries forward until they have passive income or dispose of the activity. We don't track PAL carryforwards. Currently users rely on their CPA's workpapers.
Deferred gain tracking, basis adjustments across chain of exchanges. Complex, likely CPA-driven. We could store the exchange metadata but not compute it. Worth building?
Recourse vs non-recourse financing distinction, guarantor exposure. We don't compute at-risk basis. Rarely surfaces for STR operators but relevant for syndications.
Not implemented. Would be a Pro+ Tax feature: track personal residence rental days + auto-invoice LLC at market rate + generate market comps.
We use the current-year bonus rate (60% for 2026) in the Cost Seg Estimator. We don't forecast the phase-down (60% → 40% → 20% → 0% by 2027). Should we show a "if you defer 1 year, you lose $X" forecast?
If you want to make efficient use of Jordan's meeting time.
Jordan explains what RentReel is and who it's for. Ask: "What's your first reaction to the target user?"
Open app.rentreel.co/?demo=1. Walk through Properties (5 STRs) → Schedule E export → Loophole Tracker → Cost Seg Estimator. Focus on the AI 1098 auto-extract if time.
Walk this page's "Tax rules we implement" section. For each rule, CPA gives a thumbs up / thumbs down / "let me think about it." Capture every "Ask you" answer in notes.
Show "Known gaps" section. Ask: "For your typical STR-heavy client, rank these — must-have, nice-to-have, don't-care." That's the roadmap.
Formalize the CPA partnership — CPAREVIEW code for free Pro+ Tax, $50/paid signup + $10/mo recurring for referred clients (client rate: $49/mo), "Send to my CPA" button pre-fills their email on Schedule E exports. Full offer at rentreel.co/cpa-partners.
Personalized promo code (e.g. HOGAN) — your clients lock in $49/mo (public $89). You earn $50 upfront per paid signup + $10/mo recurring commission forever. Free lifetime Pro+ Tax account for yourself. "Send to my CPA" button pre-fills your email on Schedule E exports. First 15 CPA partners get founding-member testimonial placement on rentreel.co. Full offer: rentreel.co/cpa-partners