Rental Real Estate Losses Disallowed For Failure to Meet Fifty Percent Test.

The petitioner, a schoolteacher, also owned and managed various real estate rental properties on which he lost money in 2005-2007.  The petitioner claimed the losses were fully deductible because he satisfied the tests to be a real estate professional contained in I.R.C. Sec. 469(c)(7)(B) - more than fifty percent of his personal services for the years in question were spent in real property trades or business and he spent more than 750 hours each year in rental activities.  While the petitioner's logs showed that he satisfied both tests, the court found the logs to not be credible.  The petitioner did not include any "off-site" time as his teacher hours, and exaggerated his time on rental activities, including work for certain days on rental activities exceeding 24 hours.  Escalante v. Comr., T.C. Sum. Op. 2015-47.