Investing in oil and gas wells and investing in short-term rental real estate are two popular strategies for offsetting ordinary income tax. How do you know which one is right for you? This article explains what these strategies are and when they make sense.

Key Highlights and Takeaways

• Two Ordinary Income Tax Strategies: Both strategies can offset ordinary income tax at least to some extent.
• Oil and Gas Wells Offer Upfront Tax Savings Plus Significant Income: Investors in oil and gas wells receive large upfront depreciation deductions. For every dollar you invest in oil and gas wells, you’ll get back between 30 and 50 cents upfront in tax savings (depending on your tax rate and your state’s laws). On top of that, you can potentially earn significant investment returns, some of which will be excluded from income tax.
• Investing in Short-Term Rental Real Estate Yields Smaller Tax Savings but Higher Returns: Short-term rentals can yield large depreciation deductions. The income generated by short-term rentals can be high, and the rules for using depreciation from short-term rentals to offset other types of income are less strict than the rules for other real estate investments.

Oil and Gas Drilling Investments

Oil and gas drilling investments are exactly what they sound like: investments in oil and gas drilling partnerships. These projects offer substantial tax benefits that can offset ordinary income tax while generating significant income for investors. Best of all, they don’t require investors to do anything other than invest to be considered active.

How Does Oil and Gas Depreciation Work?

A taxpayer is able to claim depreciation on oil and gas well investments. This means that a taxpayer who invests in oil and gas wells will be able to deduct the cost of the investment — and typically, the vast majority can be deducted in the first year. Intangible drilling costs (IDCs), which include labor, fuel, and chemicals, are 100% deductible in the first year and can comprise as much as 94% of an oil and gas well investment. Tangible drilling costs, which include project expenses not considered IDCs, are deductible over the course of several years, rather than all upfront.

For example, if you are a top marginal taxpayer in New York City, you could invest $100,000 into oil and gas drilling projects and offset $94,000 of your ordinary income in the first year, saving $50,000 on taxes that year ($94,000 * 53% marginal tax rate)! Much of the remaining $6,000 would be deductible in subsequent years.

No Material Participation Requirements

In general, U.S. law requires taxpayers to be “active” in an investment in order to use tax credits or depreciation from that investment to offset active income like a salary or income from a business. For example, depreciation from a “passive” real estate investment — one where you buy a property and rent it out without being actively involved — can only be used to reduce your passive rental income. To offset active income, you need losses from a business in which you are actively involved. Typically that means 100+ hours (in some cases 750+ hours) of activity in the business. But oil and gas investments are not subject to this requirement due to a 1913 law, so you can qualify as active without doing any work.

Benefits of Oil and Gas Investments:

Drawbacks of Oil and Gas Investments:

What is an Ideal Use Case?

John, a married New Yorker earning $1,200,000 per year, mostly from his W-2 job, historically has invested only in stock indexes. Tired of his $550,000 annual tax bill, John invests $300,000 in an oil drilling partnership. He deducts 94% of this amount as intangible drilling costs in the first year, reducing his taxable income by $282,000 that year (and another $18,000 over the next five years as a result of depreciation for tangible drilling costs). If his marginal tax rate is 51%, that will save him close to $153,000, effectively reducing his at-risk principal to just $147,000 ($300,000 – $153,000), even as John generates returns on his full $300,000 investment. You can estimate your potential returns here!

What are Short-Term Rentals?

Short-term rentals are residential properties that are rented out for a short duration, often through platforms like Airbnb or VRBO. These rentals can generate income while offering substantial tax benefits, including deductions for depreciation, mortgage interest, and other expenses.

How are Short-Term Rentals Treated for Tax Purposes?

Income generated from short-term rentals is considered active income, which allows property owners to deduct ordinary expenses such as property management fees, maintenance costs, utilities, and mortgage interest. Additionally, property owners can depreciate a property over time, further reducing their taxable income. If the property owner actively participates in the rental activities, they may be able to offset other forms of active income with losses from the rental property.

Benefits of Short-Term Rentals:

1. Income Generation: Renting out a property for short durations can generate substantial income, often more than traditional long-term leases (but with higher volatility).
2. Lower Material Participation Standard: If the average length that your tenants stay in your property is less than seven days, you can meet the material participation standard by spending either 100 hours on the rental activity each year (and more than anyone else spends on the rental) or a total of 500 hours working on the rental business throughout the year. The typical real estate professional standard for material participation requires either 500 hours spent on the rental activity or a total of 750 hours spent on the business.
3. Tax Deductions: Property owners can deduct a wide range of expenses, including mortgage interest, property taxes, repairs, and depreciation.

Drawbacks of Short-Term Rentals:

1. Management Burden: Managing a short-term rental can be time-consuming, involving frequent tenant turnover, cleaning, and property maintenance.
2. Regulatory Risks: Many cities and municipalities have strict regulations regarding short-term rentals that are rapidly changing, which can impact the viability of these investments.
3. Income Volatility: Beyond regulatory risks, rapidly changing supply, demand, and platform take rates can dramatically change the income and value of these properties.

What is an Ideal Use Case?

Peter, a married New Yorker earning $1,200,000 per year, has historically invested only in stock indexes. Tired of paying $550,000 of tax on his salary each year, Peter purchases a $500,000 house and lists it on Airbnb. He deducts 60% of this amount as depreciation in the first year, reducing his taxable income by $300,000 that year. If his marginal tax rate is 51%, that will save him close to $153,000, effectively reducing his taxes this year from $550,000 to under $400,000 (not including the income he generates from the rental).

Why Choose One Strategy or the Other?

Investing in oil and gas wells and investing in short-term rentals are similar in several ways. Both provide upfront tax deductions, as well as some ongoing tax deductions. Both provide ongoing investment returns that can be quite high. Oil and gas wells require no work on the investor’s part; short-term rentals require some work but less than some other tax strategies. Oil and gas wells and short-term rentals, however, have different investment return profiles. Each individual will have to weigh each strategy’s respective pluses and minuses.

Conclusion

Investing in oil and gas wells and investing in short-term rentals are both viable tax strategies, but they serve different objectives. Hopefully this article has given you a better idea of what each strategy entails, and whether one or the other might be a better fit.

About Valur

We’ve built a platform to give everyone access to the tax and wealth-building tools typically reserved for wealthy individuals with a team of accountants and lawyers. We make it simple and seamless for our customers to take advantage of these hard-to-access tax-advantaged structures. With Valur, you can build your wealth more efficiently at less than half the cost of competitors. 

From picking the best strategy to taking care of all the setup and ongoing overhead, we make things simple. The results are real: We have helped create more than $3 billion in additional wealth for our customers. If you would like to learn more, please feel free to explore our Learning Center. You can also see your potential tax savings with our online calculators or schedule a time to chat with us!