What is the short-term rental loophole?

A rental activity is passive whatever your hours (IRC §469(c)(2)). But an activity whose average period of customer use is 7 days or less is not a rental activity (Treas. Reg. §1.469-1T(e)(3)(ii)(A)), so it is passive only if you do not materially participate (§469(c)(1)). The tool checks the average and the two hour tests people use most; whether that changes your return is for your CPA.

What are the short-term rental loophole requirements?

Two numbers per property and year: an average stay of 7 days or less (or 30 days or less with significant personal services), and material participation under one of the seven tests in §1.469-5T(a), most often more than 500 hours or more than 100 hours and not less than anyone else. A unit used as your residence under §280A is outside §469 for that use (§469(j)(10)).

Does the short-term rental loophole work for a W-2 employee?

The rules the tool applies do not look at your job: §1.469-1T(e)(3) looks at the average stay and §1.469-5T at your hours on the property. A full-time job matters only through the hours you can put in.

Is there an STR loophole calculator that reads my Airbnb CSV?

This one. Export the earnings CSV (Today > Menu > Earnings, Paid or Upcoming, Get report), drop it above, check which column is which and pick the rows that are bookings. A Vrbo reservations CSV or any sheet with check-in and nights works the same way.

Is my booking data uploaded anywhere?

No. The file is read by your browser and the stays are kept in its local storage so the hours check and Pro can use them. Nothing is sent to a server or to analytics.

Is this a short-term rental tax deduction calculator?

It computes the share of your expenses that are rental expenses when you also use the place (§280A(e)) and whether §280A(g) removes the rental altogether. It does not compute your deduction, depreciation or tax.

Free · average stay · §280A days · hours

Short-term rental tax tests from your booking export

Your Airbnb or Vrbo CSV in; per property the average stay against 7 and 30 days, rental and personal days and the §280A tests out. Never uploaded.

Sample data: two made-up properties so you can see the results. Import your export below, or .

1. Your booking export

Airbnb earnings CSV, Vrbo reservations CSV, or any CSV of stays

Read in this browser, never uploaded. Airbnb: Today > Menu > Earnings > Paid (or Upcoming), filter the dates, Get report, Create report (Airbnb help). Vrbo: download your reservations. Include the stays from late last year and early next year: they can count.

Or paste the CSV text

2. Tax year and the choices the rules leave to you

Tax yearDays in a period of customer use

The regulation counts "days" and does not say whether the check-out day is one. Use the count your CPA uses, and the same one every year.

Back-to-back bookings by the same guest are one period of customer use§1.469-1(e)(3)(iii)(D) treats a continuous right to use, including renewals, as one period. Untick only if the second booking is a genuinely separate stay. Matched by guest name, no gap.Count repair and maintenance days as personal days (conservative reading)Off by default, as the IRS rule says: "Any day that you spend working substantially full time repairing and maintaining (not improving) your property isn’t counted as a day of personal use." (IRS Publication 527 (2025), chapter 5, Days used for repairs and maintenance). Tick only if your repair days were not substantially full-time work.

3. Results per property, tax year 2026

City condo (sample)

9 stays with nights in 2026 · 9 check-outs in 2026

Average period of customer use: 7.75 days; 62 nights / 8 periods counted for 2026
7-day test: Not met; Average 7 days or less: not a rental activity under §1.469-1T(e)(3)(ii)(A).
30 days or less: Met; (ii)(B) also needs significant personal services, which this tool does not judge.

8 periods would need 6 days fewer (or more short stays) to average 7.

Days only you know (2026)Personal-use days (not rented)daysYou, co-owners, family (spouse, siblings, parents, children...), anyone staying free or below a fair rent. Any part of a day counts.Days you used it during a paid staydaysRare: e.g. the guest let you stay a weekend. Rental days for the expense split, personal days for the home test.Days spent on repairs and maintenancedaysDays at the property doing repairs or upkeep (not improvements). See the repair-days choice above.

Fair-rental days in 2026: 62
Personal days (home test): 3
Limit: greater of 14 or 10% of 62: 14
Used as a residence (§280A(d)(1)): No
Rented fewer than 15 days while a home (§280A(g)): No
Rental-use share of expenses (§280A(e)): 95.4% (62/65)
Personal use, not used as a home: Some personal use, but not more than 14 days or 10% of the fair-rental days: split the expenses by rental days / total days used (§280A(e)).

Lake cabin (sample)

14 stays with nights in 2026 · 13 check-outs in 2026

Average period of customer use: 4.00 days; 52 nights / 13 periods counted for 2026
7-day test: Met; Average 7 days or less: not a rental activity under §1.469-1T(e)(3)(ii)(A).
30 days or less: Met; (ii)(B) also needs significant personal services, which this tool does not judge.

One more stay of up to 46 nights keeps the average at 7.00 or less.

Fair-rental days in 2026: 47
Personal days (home test): 12
Limit: greater of 14 or 10% of 47: 14
Used as a residence (§280A(d)(1)): No
Rented fewer than 15 days while a home (§280A(g)): No
Rental-use share of expenses (§280A(e)): 79.7% (47/59)
Personal use, not used as a home: Some personal use, but not more than 14 days or 10% of the fair-rental days: split the expenses by rental days / total days used (§280A(e)).

Type stays for another property

Your stays and days stay in this browser (local storage) so the hours check and Pro can use them. Nothing is uploaded or sent to analytics.

Your CPA will ask for these numbers. Pro hands them over.

An Excel file with live formulas (a sheet per property, the tests, the expense share), an hours log with one row per turnover, and a one-page printable summary with the rule citations.

See the CPA pack

The tools

How the numbers are worked out

Periods of customer use. Each booking is one period; two bookings by the same guest back to back are one, if you keep that choice on (a renewal of the right to use, Treas. Reg. §1.469-1(e)(3)(iii)(D)). Stays marked personal are left out.
Which periods count for the year. Those that end during the year or include 31 December, with all their days, even the ones outside the year (§1.469-1(e)(3)(iii)(C)). So a stay from 29 December 2025 to 2 January 2026 counts in 2026 with its 4 nights.
The average. Days in the counted periods divided by their number. 7 days or less: not a rental activity under §1.469-1T(e)(3)(ii)(A). 30 days or less: not a rental activity only if significant personal services are provided, (ii)(B), which the tool does not judge.
Rental and personal days (§280A). Fair-rental days are the guest nights inside the year. Personal days are the days you type plus stays you mark personal. More than 14 days or 10% of the fair-rental days makes the unit a residence (§280A(d)(1)); a residence rented under 15 days falls under §280A(g); any personal use splits the expenses by rental days / days used (§280A(e)).

Sample data: the made-up cabin above has 13 periods and 52 nights, an average of 4.00 days (without merging the back-to-back booking: 14 periods, 3.71 days). The condo averages 7.75 days: over 7. The cabin has 12 personal days against a limit of 14: its 3 repair days are not personal days (IRS Pub 527, the default), so it is not used as a residence and 79.7% of its expenses are rental. Counting the repair days as personal (the conservative reading) makes it 15 days, over the limit, and 75.8% rental. The condo's one family stay is 3 personal days: 95.4% rental.

Hours are on the hours check: yours against the cleaner's (turnovers x hours per turnover) for the 100-hour test.

What the tool does not decide

Whether significant or extraordinary personal services are provided, grouping elections (each property is treated on its own), your spouse's hours in detail, real estate professional status, depreciation or cost segregation, and state rules. It does the arithmetic of the rules on the stays you enter and shows the choices the rules leave open; your CPA decides the treatment.

Arithmetic under Treas. Reg. §1.469-1T(e)(3), §1.469-5T and IRC §280A applied to the stays you enter. Not tax advice; confirm the treatment with your CPA. Not affiliated with Airbnb or Vrbo.

Sources of the rules (primary text)

7-day test: Treas. Reg. §1.469-1T(e)(3)(ii)(A): an activity involving the use of tangible property is not a rental activity for a taxable year if "the average period of customer use for such property is seven days or less" — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.469-1T, read on 2026-09-30
30-day test: Treas. Reg. §1.469-1T(e)(3)(ii)(B): not a rental activity if "the average period of customer use for such property is 30 days or less, and significant personal services (within the meaning of paragraph (e)(3)(iv) of this section) are provided by or on behalf of the owner of the property" — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.469-1T, read on 2026-09-30
Average period of customer use: Treas. Reg. §1.469-1(e)(3)(iii)(C) (paragraph (iii) of §1.469-1T is reserved and points here) — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.469-1, read on 2026-09-30
Period of customer use: Treas. Reg. §1.469-1(e)(3)(iii)(D) — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.469-1, read on 2026-09-30
Classes of property: Treas. Reg. §1.469-1(e)(3)(iii)(A), (B) and (E) — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.469-1, read on 2026-09-30
Passive activity and rental activity: IRC §469(c)(1) and (2) — https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/469, read on 2026-09-30
Home rented out and §469: IRC §469(j)(10) Coordination with section 280A — https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/469, read on 2026-09-30
Material participation, test 1: Treas. Reg. §1.469-5T(a)(1): material participation if "the individual participates in the activity for more than 500 hours during such year" — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.469-5T, read on 2026-09-30
Material participation, test 3: Treas. Reg. §1.469-5T(a)(3): material participation if the individual participates "for more than 100 hours during the taxable year, and such individual's participation in the activity for the taxable year is not less than the participation in the activity of any other individual (including individuals who are not owners of interests in the activity)" — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.469-5T, read on 2026-09-30
The seven tests: Treas. Reg. §1.469-5T(a)(1)-(7) — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.469-5T, read on 2026-09-30
Spouse's hours: Treas. Reg. §1.469-5T(f)(3) Participation of spouse — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.469-5T, read on 2026-09-30
Proof of hours: Treas. Reg. §1.469-5T(f)(4) Methods of proof — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.469-5T, read on 2026-09-30
Investor-type work: Treas. Reg. §1.469-5T(f)(2)(ii) — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.469-5T, read on 2026-09-30
Used as a residence (14 days / 10%): IRC §280A(d)(1): a taxpayer uses a dwelling unit as a residence if personal-use days exceed "the greater of (A) 14 days, or (B) 10 percent of the number of days during such year for which such unit is rented at a fair rental"; a day of personal use is not a fair-rental day for this test — https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/280A, read on 2026-09-30
Day of personal use: IRC §280A(d)(2) — https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/280A, read on 2026-09-30
Rented fewer than 15 days: IRC §280A(g): if a dwelling unit is used by the taxpayer as a residence and "is actually rented for less than 15 days during the taxable year", no deduction is allowed because of the rental use and the rental income is not included in gross income — https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/280A, read on 2026-09-30
Expense allocation: IRC §280A(e) — https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/280A, read on 2026-09-30
Dividing expenses (IRS): IRS Publication 527 (2025), chapter 5, Dividing Expenses — https://www.irs.gov/publications/p527, read on 2026-09-30
Repair and maintenance days: IRS Publication 527 (2025), chapter 5, Days used for repairs and maintenance; IRC §280A(d)(2) closing sentence — https://www.irs.gov/publications/p527, read on 2026-09-30
Home rented out: limit on deductions: IRS Publication 527 (2025), chapter 5, Limit on deductions — https://www.irs.gov/publications/p527, read on 2026-09-30
Airbnb earnings export: Airbnb Help Center, "Download your earnings" — https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3632, read on 2026-09-30

Frequently asked questions

What is the short-term rental loophole?: A rental activity is passive whatever your hours (IRC §469(c)(2)). But an activity whose average period of customer use is 7 days or less is not a rental activity (Treas. Reg. §1.469-1T(e)(3)(ii)(A)), so it is passive only if you do not materially participate (§469(c)(1)). The tool checks the average and the two hour tests people use most; whether that changes your return is for your CPA.
What are the short-term rental loophole requirements?: Two numbers per property and year: an average stay of 7 days or less (or 30 days or less with significant personal services), and material participation under one of the seven tests in §1.469-5T(a), most often more than 500 hours or more than 100 hours and not less than anyone else. A unit used as your residence under §280A is outside §469 for that use (§469(j)(10)).
Does the short-term rental loophole work for a W-2 employee?: The rules the tool applies do not look at your job: §1.469-1T(e)(3) looks at the average stay and §1.469-5T at your hours on the property. A full-time job matters only through the hours you can put in.
Is there an STR loophole calculator that reads my Airbnb CSV?: This one. Export the earnings CSV (Today > Menu > Earnings, Paid or Upcoming, Get report), drop it above, check which column is which and pick the rows that are bookings. A Vrbo reservations CSV or any sheet with check-in and nights works the same way.
Is my booking data uploaded anywhere?: No. The file is read by your browser and the stays are kept in its local storage so the hours check and Pro can use them. Nothing is sent to a server or to analytics.
Is this a short-term rental tax deduction calculator?: It computes the share of your expenses that are rental expenses when you also use the place (§280A(e)) and whether §280A(g) removes the rental altogether. It does not compute your deduction, depreciation or tax.

Guides

Short-term rental loophole: the 7-day average stay test
Why an average guest stay of 7 days or less takes a rental out of the rental-activity rule, how the average is counted, and what it does not decide. Worked sample.
The 14-day rule and personal use days on a rental (§280A)
When personal use makes a rental a residence (more than 14 days or 10% of rental days), the rented-under-15-days rule and the expense split, with a table.