Jane makes a living renting expensive state of the art surveillance equipment to detectives and nervous spouses. Her average rental period is 27 days. The rental price includes all the technical help the user requires. Her people frequently help set up the equipment and are willing to help the customer in any way. The IRS should classify this activity as "not a rental activity" for the purposes of the passive activity rules.
Nate owns a 8% interest in a rental. He is active with respect to the rental. His only income for 2009 is a $50,000 of salary and a $3,000 loss from the rental. He can deduct all of the rental loss against his salary.
Jerry Jones rented out his home for 12 days last year. For this he received $21,500 of rental income. Jerry can exclude the rental income from gross income.