IRS recognized real estate professional while drawing pension?

[Cristin Andrews]

Hello - newbie here,

I'm a single high income earner so have very limited tax benefits for real estate investing and know that I cannot become an IRS recognized real estate professional while I have my W2 job. I plan to retire in 6 years and will have a pension. Would I then be able to become an IRS recognized full time real estate professional at that time while I'm drawing the pension? (would be under 100K threshold)And if so, would I be able to deduct depreciation at that time which has been deferred from previous years?

Thanks in advance for your response.