The purpose of the passive loss rules is to prevent you from deducting passive losses from nonpassive income. Passive losses are losses from business activities in which you do not materially participate (10.6) or losses from rental activities that are not deductible under the $25,000 allowance (10.2) or which do not qualify you as a real estate professional (10.3). In some cases passive income may be recharacterized as nonpassive income (10.9).
Where you do not materially participate in a business activity, passive income or loss is determined by matching income and expenses of that activity. Portfolio income (see below) earned by the activity or any pay that you earn is not included to determine passive income or loss.
Portfolio income is nonpassive income and broadly defined as income that is not derived in the ordinary course of business of the activity. Portfolio income includes interest, dividends, annuities, and royalties from property held for investment. However, interest income on loans and investments made in the business of lending money or received on business accounts receivable is generally not treated as portfolio income; see 10.9 for special recharacterization rules. Similarly, royalties derived from a business of licensing property are not portfolio income to the person who created the property or performed substantial services or incurred substantial costs.
Portfolio income also includes gains from the sale of properties that produce portfolio income or are held for investment.
Expenses allocable to portfolio income, including interest expenses, do not enter into the computation of passive income or loss.
Gain or loss realized on the sale of property used in the activity is generally treated as passive income/loss if at the time of disposition the activity was passive. Under this rule, if you have a gain that you are reporting on the installment method, the treatment of installment payments depends on your status at the time of the initial sale. If you were not a material participant in the year of sale, installment payments in a later year are treated as passive income, even if you become a material participant in the later year. However, an exception to the year-of-sale status rule applies to certain sales of property formerly used in a passive activity (10.16).
Although gain on the sale of property is generally passive income if the activity is passive at the time of sale, there is an exception that could recharacterize the gain as nonpassive income if the property was formerly used in a nonpassive activity (10.16).
The term “compensation for personal services” includes only (1) earned income, including certain payments made by a partnership to a partner and representing compensation for the services of the partner; (2) amounts included in gross income involving the transfer of property in exchange for the performance of services; (3) amounts distributed under qualified plans; (4) amounts distributed under retirement, pension, and other arrangements for deferred compensation of services; and (5) Social Security benefits includible in gross income.
Passive activity gross income also does not include (1) income from patent, copyright, or literary, musical, or artistic compositions, if your personal efforts significantly contributed to the creation of the property; (2) income from a qualified low-income housing project; (3) income tax refunds; and (4) payments on a covenant not to compete.
Deductible expenses that offset passive income of an activity must be related to the passive activity, such as real property taxes. The following are not considered passive activity deductions:
Interest expenses attributable to passive activities are treated as passive activity deductions and are not subject to the investment interest limitations. For example, if you have a net passive loss of $100, of which $40 is attributable to interest expenses, the entire $100 is a passive loss; the $40 is not subject to the investment interest limitation (15.10). Similarly, income and loss from a passive activity is generally not treated as investment income or loss in figuring the investment interest limitation.
If you rent out a vacation home that you personally use for more than the greater of 14 days or 10% of the fair market rental days (9.7), you may treat the residence as a qualified second residence under the mortgage interest rules (15.1). Interest on such a qualifying second home is generally fully deductible, and the deductible interest (15.1) is not treated as a passive activity deduction. The rental portion of the interest is deducted on Schedule E of Form 1040 and the personal-use portion on Schedule A if itemized deductions are claimed (9.9).
For an individual with interests in several business entities, the payment of management fees by one of the entities to another is in effect a payment by the owner to himself. However, if the taxpayer materially participates in the entity providing the management services but not in the entity that pays the fees, the passive loss rules prevent the “self-charged” expense from offsetting the nonpassive fee income. IRS final regulations allow a netting deduction only for self-charged interest but not for any other self-charged expense.
3.22.74.66