Schedule F - Material Participation

Material participation - Participation, for purposes of the seven tests listed below, generally includes any work you did in connection with an activity if you owned an interest in the activity at which you did the work.  The capacity in which you did the work does not matter.  However, work is not treated as participation if it is work that an owner would not customarily do in the same type of activity and one of your main reasons for doing the work was to avoid the disallowance of losses or credits from the activity under the passive activity rules.

Work you did as an investor in an activity is not treated as participation unless you were directly involved in the day-to-day management or operations of the activity. Work done as an investor includes:

• Studying and reviewing financial statements or reports on the activity,

• Preparing or compiling summaries or analyses of the finances or operations of the activity for your own use, and

• Monitoring the finances or operations of the activity in a non-managerial capacity.

Participation by your spouse during the tax year in an activity you own can be counted as your participation in the activity. This applies even if your spouse did not own an interest in the activity and whether or not you and your spouse file a joint return.

For purposes of the passive activity rules, you materially participated in the operation of this trade or business activity if you met any of the following seven tests.

1. You participated in the activity for more than 500 hours during the tax year.

2. Your participation in the activity for the tax year was substantially all of the participation in the activity of all individuals (including individuals who did not own any interest in the activity) for the tax year.

3. You participated in the activity for more than 100 hours during the tax year, and you participated at least as much as any other person for the tax year. This includes and individuals who did not own any interest in the activity.

4. The activity is a significant participation activity for the tax year, and you participated in all significant participation activities for more than 500 hours during the year.  An activity is a "significant participation activity" if it involves the conduct of a trade or business, you participated in the activity for more than 100 hours during the tax year, and you did not materially participate under any of the material tests (other than this test 4).

5. You materially participated in the activity for any 5 of the prior 10 tax years.

6. The activity is a personal service activity in which you materially participated for any 3 prior tax years.  A personal activity is an activity that involves performing personal services in the fields of health, law, engineering, architecture, accounting, actuarial science, performing arts, consulting, or any other trade or business in which capital is not a material income producing factor.

7. Based on all the facts and circumstances, you participated in the activity on a regular, continuous, and substantial basis during the tax year.  Your participation in managing the activity does not count in determining if you meet this test if any person (except you)

   • received compensation for performing management services in connection with the activity or

   • spent more hours during the tax year than you spent performing management services in connection with the activity (regardless of whether the person was compensated for the services).

Directly Related to Farming 

If you are a retired or disabled farmer, you are treated as materially participating in a farming business if you materially participated