Material participation log template
A spreadsheet with the columns the case law actually asks for: the date, start and stop times, what was done, who did it, and what evidence backs it. Free, no email, opens anywhere.
Why each column is there
- Date of work
- A row dated when the work happened is the difference between a record and a reconstruction.
- Start and stop times
- Penley claimed roughly 2,520 hours with no times attached — more than a full-time year — and the log was discarded rather than trimmed.
- What was actually done
- Hairston's entries were trivial and vague. The padding did not get removed; it discredited everything around it.
- Who did the work
- Your spouse's hours count toward your total under §469(h)(5). Everyone else's count against you.
- Evidence reference
- A photo, an invoice, or a message thread turns an assertion into a record that can be checked.
- Date the row was written
- Sezonov's hours were rebuilt after the year closed and were dismissed as guesswork. This column is how you show yours were not.
What never counts
The template lists these separately so they stay out of the total: on call / available, travel, reviewing statements as an investor, education & market study, acquisition research. There are 3 excluded kinds of time in the engine behind this, and the reasons are on the method page.
The column most people leave blank
Everyone else’s hours. The 100-hour test is a race against the single busiest other person — normally the cleaner — and an owner who never asked cannot answer it. In Pohoski the taxpayer won on the property where he could show he beat the manager and lost on the one where he could not. Ask for the invoice totals once a quarter and write them down.
Next
Check the hours you already have against all seven tests with the participation checker, read how to prove your hours, or model the whole year in the estimator.