About This Site
Who built the calculator, why it exists, and how it stays honest about the numbers.
Why this exists
We manage short-term rentals for a living. Over and over we watched the same thing happen: an owner buys a property for the tax strategy, sees a six-figure deduction, and then loses it because the way they set up management broke the material participation rule. The math was never the hard part. The qualifying rules were.
So we built the calculator we wish those owners had seen first, paired with a plain-language guide to the rules that decide whether the deduction survives. The goal is simple: let a serious buyer size the opportunity in two minutes, then understand what it actually takes to keep it.
Who runs it
We would rather you hear this from us than wonder about it.
This site is operated by Elysian Vacation Rentals, a short-term rental management company. Our model is built to support owners who need to stay operationally involved enough to clear material participation, which is the exact problem a traditional full-service manager creates. We do not decide whether you qualify, and we never will. Your CPA reviews your hours, your records, and your facts. Our job is to keep the management arrangement from being the reason you fail the test.
That is the honest version of how this site makes sense as a business. The calculator and the guides stay free and accurate whether or not you ever talk to us.
How we keep it honest
Three commitments hold the content to a standard the typical tax blog skips.
- Every number traces to a primary source. The brackets, the depreciation rules, and the regulations are each cited on the methodology page so you can check them against the original.
- The tool would rather show $0 than a guess. When a state has decoupled from federal bonus depreciation, the benefit is genuinely zero, and it says so. When the answer is uncertain, it flags that instead of dressing it up as settled.
- The figures get updated for the law. Tax brackets move every year and state conformity shifts, so the numbers are refreshed as the IRS and the states publish new ones.
Who it is for
The calculator fits a high earner weighing a short-term rental purchase for the tax benefit. It is a planning tool, not a replacement for a CPA, and using it does not create an advisory relationship. Size the opportunity here, then take real numbers to a professional who can sign off on them for your situation.
Size the opportunity on your numbers
Enter a purchase price and your income, and the calculator estimates your Year 1 federal tax savings from the depreciation strategy.