Full-time workers continue to have a hard time meeting the test to be a real estate pro, as a recent Tax Court case demonstrates. The passive loss rules don’t apply to losses of folks who spend over half of their working hours and more than 750 hours per year materially involved in real estate.
So a person working 1,800 hours a year at his regular job must put in more hours than that in a year in real estate endeavors to qualify as a real estate pro. That’s very difficult to do.
(Anyika, TC Memo. 2011-69)