Vacation rental tax software built for VRBO hosts. Stop overpaying. Start optimizing.
The 1099-K tells you what Expedia reported. It doesn't tell you about depreciation, the Augusta rule, cost segregation, or the short-term rental exception. That's where the real money is.
The 7-day average stay rule, the 14-day personal use allowance, passive activity loss rules — these aren't standard. Generalist CPAs frequently misapply them.
VRBO's gross payout includes amounts that shouldn't hit your income line. Most hosts report the 1099 gross without adjustments. That's an immediate overpayment.
Tracking down statements, receipts, mileage logs, and occupancy records from across the year shouldn't take a weekend every March.
Automatic payout ingestion from VRBO — gross income, service fees, taxes collected — with correct tax treatment applied from day one.
The 7-day average rule, personal use day calculations, passive vs. active loss treatment — Perch knows the rules that apply to your situation.
Perch monitors QBI limits, material participation hours, and personal use days. You get notified before a threshold closes an opportunity.
Gross VRBO revenue minus every deductible expense. The number your CPA actually needs — not what VRBO shows on your dashboard.
Schedule E prep, depreciation schedules, and occupancy logs assembled automatically.
The tax engine trusted by real estate CPAs nationwide. Actual tax code, applied to your actual numbers.
Your Lake Tahoe property has an average stay of 6.8 days — qualifying as a short-term rental. You've logged 680 hours in real estate this year. 70 more hours unlocks the STR exception, potentially offsetting $18,000 in ordinary income. Recommended action: log remaining hours before Dec 31.
VRBO rental income is reported on Schedule E as passive income unless you qualify for the short-term rental exception. You pay ordinary income tax rates on net profit after deductions. If your property averages 7 days or less per stay and you materially participate, losses can offset your ordinary income.
Yes. The service fees VRBO charges (typically 8 percent) are a deductible business expense. However VRBO's 1099-K reports gross income before fees. Perch tracks the gross-to-net difference and ensures you are deducting the fees correctly rather than reporting inflated income.
The Augusta Rule (Section 280A) allows homeowners to rent their primary residence for up to 14 days per year completely tax-free — the income does not even need to be reported. VRBO hosts who occasionally rent their primary home may qualify. Perch monitors your rental days and flags when this opportunity applies.
For tax purposes, a property with an average stay of 7 days or less is classified as a short-term rental. This distinction matters because STRs can qualify for non-passive treatment, allowing losses to offset W-2 income. Perch classifies your properties correctly based on your actual booking data.
Perch consolidates income from all booking channels into a single per-property P&L. Multi-channel payout reconciliation including different fee structures and tax withholding across platforms is handled automatically.
No. Perch is designed to work with or without a CPA. If you self-file, Perch prepares every number you need before you open TurboTax or H&R Block. If you use a CPA, Perch auto-generates a professional package that typically cuts CPA prep fees significantly.
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