Tax help built for short-term rental owners.
Cost segregation, depreciation, quarterly estimates, and the Schedule C vs. E question — handled by someone who actually reads your Airbnb and Vrbo statements.
Sound Familiar?
Most preparers treat a rental like a rental. A short-term rental isn't taxed like your neighbor's long-term lease, and the difference is worth real money.
Filed like a vanilla rental
Your current preparer treats your STR the same as a long-term lease, missing the classification and deduction rules that apply to short stays.
Not sure you qualify for the loophole
You’ve heard about the short-term rental tax loophole but no one has confirmed whether your hours and stay lengths actually qualify.
Income scattered across platforms
Airbnb, Vrbo, and direct bookings all report differently, and reconciling cleaning fees and payouts by hand eats a weekend every month.
No plan for the new purchase
You bought or renovated a property and don’t know what a cost segregation study would actually save you.
Services for STR owners
STR Tax Strategy
Schedule C vs. Schedule E classification and material participation, structured so it holds up if you're ever audited.
Cost segregation & depreciation
Bonus depreciation studies on new purchases and renovations, timed to offset the income that actually needs offsetting.
Entity structuring
Business entity setup and structuring for owners scaling from one property to a portfolio.e
Bookkeeping
Monthly reconciliation across Airbnb, Vrbo, direct bookings, and cleaning fees, in QuickBooks.
Quarterly estimated taxes
Payment calculations that account for seasonal occupancy swings, not a flat guess.
IRS correspondence
Notices and audits on rental activity handled directly with the IRS, no call center.
About Mike
Mike Colgan has prepared returns for individuals and small businesses, and now focuses that experience on short-term rental owners — one property or a dozen. He's read the depreciation schedules and the material participation logs, and he still answers the phone himself.
Testimonials
Here's what my customers have to say:
Questions STR owners actually ask
What’s the short-term rental tax loophole?
If your average guest stay is 7 days or less and you materially participate in running the property, the activity isn’t treated as a passive rental — losses (including bonus depreciation from a cost segregation study) can offset your other income, including W-2 wages. It has specific requirements and the IRS looks closely at it, so it’s worth doing with documentation in place from the start.
Do I file Schedule C or Schedule E for my rental?
It depends on average stay length and how many "substantial services" you provide, like daily cleaning or meals. Most STRs with average stays under 7 days and hands-on management land on Schedule C; longer stays with minimal services usually stay on Schedule E. We’ll look at your actual bookings to figure out which applies.
What is a cost segregation study, and do I need one?
It breaks a property purchase into components — appliances, flooring, land improvements — that depreciate faster than the building itself, often 5 or 15 years instead of 27.5 or 39. On a newly purchased or renovated STR, that can front-load a large deduction. It’s usually worth it on purchases above roughly $300k, but the math depends on your situation.
I list on Airbnb, Vrbo, and my own site. How do you track all of it?
We reconcile each platform’s payout report against your bank deposits monthly, so cleaning fees, platform fees, and refunds are recorded correctly rather than dumped into one lump "rental income" line.
I just bought my third property. What changes?
Multiple properties usually means it’s time to formalize bookkeeping per property, revisit whether an LLC or series LLC makes sense, and check whether you still qualify for material participation across the portfolio, since the hours-based tests get harder to meet as you scale
If your average guest stay is 7 days or less and you materially participate in running the property, the activity isn’t treated as a passive rental — losses (including bonus depreciation from a cost segregation study) can offset your other income, including W-2 wages. It has specific requirements and the IRS looks closely at it, so it’s worth doing with documentation in place from the start.
Do I file Schedule C or Schedule E for my rental?
It depends on average stay length and how many "substantial services" you provide, like daily cleaning or meals. Most STRs with average stays under 7 days and hands-on management land on Schedule C; longer stays with minimal services usually stay on Schedule E. We’ll look at your actual bookings to figure out which applies.
What is a cost segregation study, and do I need one?
It breaks a property purchase into components — appliances, flooring, land improvements — that depreciate faster than the building itself, often 5 or 15 years instead of 27.5 or 39. On a newly purchased or renovated STR, that can front-load a large deduction. It’s usually worth it on purchases above roughly $300k, but the math depends on your situation.
I list on Airbnb, Vrbo, and my own site. How do you track all of it?
We reconcile each platform’s payout report against your bank deposits monthly, so cleaning fees, platform fees, and refunds are recorded correctly rather than dumped into one lump "rental income" line.
I just bought my third property. What changes?
Multiple properties usually means it’s time to formalize bookkeeping per property, revisit whether an LLC or series LLC makes sense, and check whether you still qualify for material participation across the portfolio, since the hours-based tests get harder to meet as you scale
Get in Touch
Response within one business day.