Material participation - proof to collect

[Anna Thanopoulou]

Hi everyone,

I have a few questions around material participation for an STR:

1) Activities that count: does anyone have a list of things we know for sure count (eg based on court cases?) Do home improvement activities count? Does marketing count? Do activities prior to launch count or only operations?

2) Time spent by others: to qualify for the test "100 hours and nobody spent more time", how do we track the time spent by others and what proof would be required in the event of an audit?

3) Grouping properties: specifically, can we group activities across two properties we purchased and placed in service this year - one in the US and another one overseas. Same owners, same management (self managed), both STRs. Can we group our hours across them or does international not count?

Many thanks in advance