DIAMOND MEMBERSHIP
Real Estate Professional Status is not a filing position; it is an evidentiary one. § 469(c)(7) sets two gates — more than 750 hours in real property trades or businesses, and more than half of all personal services performed in them — and the taxpayer carries the burden of proving both. The same is true of short-term-rental material participation, where the strategy’s entire value rests on a record created while the hours were being worked, not reconstructed after a notice arrives. DIAMOND is built for the client whose deductions depend on that record.
What DIAMOND Includes
Every engagement level provides integrated tax counsel, transactional support, and audit defense across all three phases of the real estate life cycle. What differs between levels is the depth of service in each phase, the number of transactions covered, and the access the principal client maintains with the firm.
- Acquisition structuring designed around the participation and grouping consequences, not only the liability ones
- Cost segregation planned against placed-in-service timing and the bonus depreciation available for the year
- Short-term-rental acquisitions read for the average-period-of-customer-use question before the property is bought
- § 1031 replacement-property planning inside the exchange windows
- Financing reviewed for at-risk and interest limitation effects on the usability of the resulting loss
- REPS qualification strategy under the 750-hour and more-than-half gates, including which spouse carries the qualification and how grouping elections are made
- Material participation across all seven regulatory tests, with the record built contemporaneously
- Short-term-rental strategy where the activity is outside the per-se passive rental rule
- Passive loss, suspended loss, and at-risk tracking across activities and years
- Operating agreements and entity maintenance consistent with the participation position being claimed
- Examination readiness — the time log, the substantiation, and the grouping elections assembled as one exhibit
- Disposition sequencing to release suspended passive losses at the right time
- Depreciation recapture and character analysis, including the recapture consequences of an accelerated study
- § 1031 exchanges, installment sales, and Opportunity Zone deferral
- Reporting on Forms 8582, 8824, and the depreciation schedules by the practitioner who built the position
Donovan-Structured. Donovan-Defended.
Any transaction the firm structures and issues a written tax opinion on is defended by the firm through IRS or state examination and administrative appeals at no additional engagement charge. The same practitioner who designs the position reads the workpapers, signs the return, and defends the position if it is examined. One file, one team, end to end — planning, compliance, and controversy under one practitioner, with no handoffs that introduce gaps in the record.
The Member Workspace
DIAMOND membership includes the full analytical and documentation toolset of the principal tier — strategic tax modeling, deal economics and feasibility analysis, investor routing and entity classification, the complete entity formation set, and a contemporaneous § 469 time log scoring all seven material-participation tests and the REPS gates as an exam-ready record. The tools organize the record; the position is prepared by the firm.
Scope of Practice
Tax and tax-driven structuring nationwide. The firm advises on federal, state, and international tax matters for clients anywhere in the United States, and structures transactions using entities formed in any U.S. or qualifying foreign jurisdiction. Florida and Massachusetts real estate transactional work is handled directly by the firm; closings and state-specific transactional work elsewhere are coordinated with local counsel, with the firm leading the tax and structural design.
Each level is individually scoped. Engagement terms are set in a confidential consultation and documented in a written engagement letter; the firm does not publish or quote pricing.
The Other Engagement Levels
GOLD · PLATINUM · RESERVE — or read the membership overview comparing all four levels.
Disclaimer. This page is descriptive marketing information about an engagement level offered by Donovan Legal PLLC. It is not legal or tax advice, does not apply the law to any reader’s facts, and does not create an attorney-client relationship — that relationship is created only by a signed engagement letter, which controls the scope of services and terms. Some services may require separate engagement and are not available in all jurisdictions. Each legal and tax matter is unique, and outcomes depend on the specific facts, applicable law, and circumstances involved.
To discuss DIAMOND with Donovan Legal PLLC, book a consultation or reach the firm at (561) 529-5873.
Have the Record Built Before It Is Requested
Whether the hours support the position is a question of fact, and the answer is decided by the documentation. Schedule a confidential consultation with the firm.