Need Tax professional - W2 employee with 1 LTR and 1 STR

[Matt Smith]

My fiance and I bought our first STR last year and rented on AirBNB/VRBO throughout the year. We are both W2 employees so we should be pretty simple.

We bought the STR as a vacation home and do go sometimes ourselves (usually non-peak season) but it is available for rent all year.

We also have one LTR with a signed lease.

Want to work with a tax pro who knows STR's/LTRs and how to best do depreciation. Want to know if a cost-seg would work for the STR.

Bonus if you are in Atlanta, but not necessary.

[Christian Block]

The first question I would ask you is how many personal days and how many rental days did you have on the STR? That will provide some clarity on your other questions.  

You are considered to use the STR as a residence if your personal use is the greater of 14 days or 10% of the total days your rent it a FMV. If it is considered a residence, you will be limited by Section 280A as to what you are allowed to deduct.

It will qualify as a personal day if you or anyone else with an interest in the property uses it, or you rent it to friends/family/etc. at below FMV. If stay there while you are doing work on the property, I don't think you count that as a personal day.

There is also a special rule if you rent it for less than 15 days; you don't report any income or report any expenses.