Track activity hours, mileage, expenses, and cost basis with contemporaneous, evidence-backed records — so when your CPA files, they have the documentation to back every line.
Everything You Need to Track, Document, and Grow in Real Estate
Smart tracking, audit-ready records, and the planning tools that turn property activity into wealth
Beyond the headlines, here's everything else Deductably provides to its users
AI Tax Q&A AssistantAI Deduction Finder§199A Enterprise Safe Harbor (250h)7 Material Participation TestsNet Worth TrackingWealth ProjectionLease ManagementLease Evidence TimelineProperty CalculatorProperty ComparisonWhat-If ScenariosDebt Payoff CalculatorPortfolio HubGoals & Shared GoalsActivity TimerVoice Memos on ActivitiesClosing Disclosure Capture§469 Passive Loss Carryforward§1014 Inheritance Step-Up§1015 Gift Basis (dual-basis)§1033 Involuntary Conversion§165 Casualty Loss RecordingUse Periods TrackingHistorical Improvements WizardForm 8824 PrepTax Year CPA Packet PDFBackground GPS TrackingGeofencingAudit Hash ChainOffline-First Syncand many more →
AI Tax Q&A AssistantAI Deduction Finder§199A Enterprise Safe Harbor (250h)7 Material Participation TestsNet Worth TrackingWealth ProjectionLease ManagementLease Evidence TimelineProperty CalculatorProperty ComparisonWhat-If ScenariosDebt Payoff CalculatorPortfolio HubGoals & Shared GoalsActivity TimerVoice Memos on ActivitiesClosing Disclosure Capture§469 Passive Loss Carryforward§1014 Inheritance Step-Up§1015 Gift Basis (dual-basis)§1033 Involuntary Conversion§165 Casualty Loss RecordingUse Periods TrackingHistorical Improvements WizardForm 8824 PrepTax Year CPA Packet PDFBackground GPS TrackingGeofencingAudit Hash ChainOffline-First Syncand many more →
Simple, Smart, Automatic
Start building your tax record in 3 easy steps
1
Download & Set Up
Install Deductably on your iPhone or Android. Select your persona (Agent, Investor, Property Manager, etc.) for customized tracking. Quick 2-minute setup.
2
Track Activities & Expenses
Log showings, inspections, meetings, and business trips. GPS tracks your drives and links them to activities. Use templates for client meetings and business trips. Snap photos of receipts.
3
Export for Taxes
Generate reports with one tap. Export to CSV. Share with your CPA. All organized by IRS categories. Tax time made easy.
CPA-ready exports aligned with Schedule E · 4562 · 8949 · 4797 · 8824 and many more forms
Trusted & Secure
Your financial data is protected with enterprise-grade security
Encrypted Storage
TLS encryption in transit and AES-256 encryption at rest in our secured cloud storage. Your data is never sold or shared with third parties.
Audit-Ready Records
Contemporaneous logging with GPS, photos, and timestamps. Hash-chained audit trail. Built around IRC §469, §1014, §1031, §121, and §1250 documentation requirements.
Privacy First
Local-first architecture. Your data lives on your device; encrypted backup is opt-in. We never sell or share your information.
Works With Your Tax Workflow
For users filing on their own or with DIY tax software, Deductably keeps the records organized and exportable. For users with a CPA, exports follow the formats your tax pro already uses — Schedule E, Form 4562, Form 8949, Form 4797, Form 8824 — with the underlying evidence linked in PDF or CSV.
Ready to Build Your Tax Record?
Track expenses, mileage, REP hours, and cost basis with audit-ready documentation — so your CPA has everything they need at tax time.
A per-property, event-sourced record of every dollar that touches your adjusted basis — purchases, closing costs, improvements, depreciation, casualties, §1031 exchanges. So when you sell, your CPA has the documented number, not a reconstructed guess.
The problem most owners hit at sale time
Cost basis is the IRS's measuring stick for whether your sale is a gain or a loss — and how much of that gain is taxed at ordinary rates vs. capital rates. Most owners discover at sale time that their records can't actually support the basis they claim.
You bought the property years ago and remember the purchase price — but not the closing costs, the land allocation, or which seller credits adjusted your basis.
You've done improvements over the years — but the receipts are in a shoebox, an email thread, and a Drive folder you forgot about.
Your accountant ran depreciation in tax software, but that schedule lives in their files, not yours.
You're now selling — or refinancing, or moving into a §1031 — and you need a number that holds up under scrutiny.
The IRS doesn't care that the records are scattered. Without contemporaneous documentation, the burden of proof falls on you — and reconstructing basis after the fact creates audit risk and lost deductions.
How Deductably supports you
1
Anchor with the acquisition
Add a property and Deductably creates the initial acquisition entries — purchase price, land allocation, building bucket (27.5-yr residential or 39-yr commercial). Upload your Closing Disclosure and the entries upgrade to Documented tier.
2
Capture improvements as they happen
Snap a receipt and Deductably suggests the IRS treatment — improvement, repair, or de minimis safe harbor under §263(a). Override anytime; every change creates a reversal entry so history is never mutated.
3
Annual depreciation accrues automatically
Each year-end, the system generates the next-year depreciation row for every active improvement using MACRS straight-line with the correct convention.
4
Project the sale before you sell
Tap "What if I sold today" and Deductably runs the full §1245 / §1250 / §1231 split — ordinary recapture, unrecaptured §1250 gain (the 25%-capped piece), and the remaining long-term capital gain.
IRC section coverage
§263(a)
Repair vs. improvement vs. de minimis safe harbor
§1012
Cost basis: purchase + closing costs minus seller credits
§167 / §168
MACRS depreciation: 27.5-yr and 39-yr, mid-month convention
§165
Casualty loss — reduces basis when not fully restored
§1014
Step-up at death: FMV basis for heirs (or §2032 alternate)
§1015
Gift basis: dual-basis rule with carryover and no-man's-land
§469
Passive activity loss carryforwards per-property per-year
§121
Primary-residence exclusion with §121(b)(5) non-qualified-use
Involuntary conversion: 2/3/4-year replacement windows
§1245
Ordinary recapture on cost-segregated personal-property improvements
§1250
Unrecaptured §1250 gain on real-property depreciation — capped at 25%
For your CPA
When you generate the Cost Basis Ledger PDF, the export contains:
A chronological event log — every basis-changing entry from acquisition forward — with its IRS citation and the evidence artifact attached or referenced.
The current adjusted basis projection at any as-of date, with the math shown.
The §1245/§1250/§1231 split projection if a sale were finalized today.
A confidence-tier breakdown of each entry: Documented, CPA-Attested, System-Generated, or Estimated.
If you're a CPA reading this
Deductably is a record-keeping layer — not a tax preparation service. We deliver the contemporaneous documentation that lets you support the basis position your client wants to take. The classification decisions remain yours.
What competitors don't do
Event-sourced, not stored. Most real-estate accounting tools store a single "adjusted basis" number. Deductably stores every event and projects basis from the ledger. Reclassify two years later — reversal entry, new depreciation schedule, projection updates without rewriting history.
§1245 / §1250 split — not just total gain. Generic tax software shows you "your gain." Deductably shows you ordinary-recapture, 25%-capped unrecaptured §1250, and §1231 long-term capital separately — the three components your CPA needs for Form 4797.
Confidence tier on every entry. Each basis-changing event carries its own quality grade: Documented → CPA-Attested → System-Generated → Estimated. Roll-up scoring shows your weakest entries before audit, not during.
Hash-chained audit trail. Every entry binds to the previous entry's SHA-256 hash. Tampering with any historical record invalidates every downstream hash. SOC 2 reviewers can verify end-to-end.
Full IRC coverage in one ledger. §121, §165, §263(a), §469, §1014, §1015, §1031, §1033, §1245, §1250 — all in the same per-property record, not scattered across spreadsheets.
Deductably is a record-keeping and documentation platform. It is not a tax preparation, tax advisory, legal, or financial advisory service. Whether a particular position will be accepted by the IRS depends on facts, applicable law, and your tax professional's review.
Deductably reshapes itself around how you actually use it. Pick a persona once and the home screen, activity catalog, and recommendations lead with what matters to your focus — everything else stays one tap away.
Why this exists
The same app supports a first-time homebuyer, a duplex landlord with 4 properties, and a brokerage owner running a team. Showing all three the same default screen is a UX dead end — the homebuyer doesn't need REP-hour ladders; the brokerage owner doesn't need first-home savings goals.
Deductably solves this with UI personalization, not feature gating. Every feature is available regardless of persona. The persona just decides which features are surfaced first.
The four personas
1
Getting Started
For folks exploring whether they need this. Surfaces the AI Q&A, the quick guides, and the property calculator. No assumptions about which path you'll take.
2
First Home
Leads with down-payment savings goals, mortgage and PMI math, and home-buyer-friendly expense categories. The Home Buyer Hub becomes the default landing surface.
3
Rental Owner
Leads with the property list, activity timer, mileage capture, the Cost Basis Ledger, and the Schedule E export. The Rental Owner Playbook surfaces first.
4
Agent / Broker
Leads with showings, listing appointments, REP hours toward §469(c)(7), and the agent/broker activity playbook. Mileage tracking is set to auto-capture.
How you change it
Settings → Personalize → pick a persona. Change it any time without losing data. There's also an optional set of qualifiers (e.g., pursuing REP, STR operator, brokerage owner) that further refines recommendations without changing the persona itself.
What competitors don't do
UI personalization, not feature gating. Most apps either show you everything (overwhelming) or lock features behind tiers (frustrating). Deductably keeps everything available and just rearranges priority.
Persona + qualifiers. Most tools have one role selector. Deductably layers qualifiers (REP candidate, STR operator, brokerage owner) on top of the persona for sharper recommendations.
Personalization affects UI surfacing only — every Deductably feature is available regardless of which persona you pick. Tax decisions are made by you and your tax professional.
Track activity hours toward the §469(c)(7) Real Estate Professional threshold (750 hours), the §199A Enterprise Safe Harbor (250 hours), and the seven Material Participation tests under §469(h) — all from the same activity log.
What this is for
The IRS treats rental real estate as passive by default — meaning losses can't offset ordinary income. There are three escape hatches, and they all require contemporaneous hour records:
§469(c)(7) Real Estate Professional — 750+ hours in real-property trades or businesses AND more than half your personal services for the year. Unlocks unlimited active-loss treatment.
§469(h) Material Participation — pass one of seven tests (500+ hours, substantially-all participation, 100+ and most of any participant, etc.) for any single activity.
§199A Enterprise Safe Harbor — 250+ hours per rental enterprise (Rev. Proc. 2019-38) supports the QBI deduction.
"Contemporaneous" is the word that matters. Tax Court has rejected reconstructed time logs in case after case. Deductably exists to make logging hours at the moment of work something you'll actually do.
How Deductably supports you
1
One-tap activity capture
Pick from the built-in catalog (showings, inspections, tenant communication, repairs, paperwork) or create a custom activity. The in-app timer captures GPS, photos, and the start/end timestamps as you work.
2
Three thresholds tracked in parallel
Every activity counts toward whichever thresholds apply: REP 750h, MP 500h (Test 1), and §199A 250h. Progress bars update live; you always know how close you are.
3
Performer-type classification
Each activity records who did the work — self, spouse, contractor, property manager. §469(c)(7) only credits personal-service hours, so this distinction is built into the model from day one.
4
Late-entry honesty
Entries added more than a few days after the activity get flagged is_late_entry. Tax Court has called this out specifically. The Record Strength Score lowers your tier when too many of your hours come from late entries.
The seven MP tests, tracked
Test 1
500+ hours of participation in the activity
Test 2
Substantially all participation in the activity
Test 3
100+ hours, more than any other participant
Test 4
Significant participation aggregate > 500 hours
Test 5
Material participation in 5 of last 10 years
Test 6
Personal service activity, prior 3 years
Test 7
Facts and circumstances (with caveats)
If you're a CPA reading this
The REP / MP / §199A determinations remain yours — Deductably tracks raw hours with full evidence; you decide which test the client meets. The export ships you the raw log, the per-property aggregate, and the threshold-progress snapshot.
What competitors don't do
Three thresholds in parallel. Generic time-tracking apps count one number. Deductably tracks REP 750h, MP 500h, and §199A 250h simultaneously from the same activity log.
Performer-type classification on every entry. §469(c)(7) only counts personal-service hours. Contractor and property-manager hours track separately and are flagged.
Late-entry penalty in the Record Strength Score. The system rewards contemporaneous logging in scoring, not just in capture.
All seven MP tests modeled. Most tools only check Test 1 (500h). Deductably tracks toward all seven so you (or your CPA) can identify which test actually passes.
Hour counts are based on your manual entries and automatic GPS/timer capture, and are not independently verified. Whether you meet the §469(c)(7) tests, §469(h) material participation tests, or §199A enterprise safe harbor is a facts-and-circumstances determination for your tax professional.
Background GPS captures every drive automatically. Link each trip to a property, activity, or business purpose. The IRS standard mileage deduction is one of the most-audited business deductions — Deductably gives you the contemporaneous proof to defend it.
What this is for
The IRS standard mileage rate is over $0.67/mile. For an investor doing 6,000 business miles a year, that's $4,000+ in deductions. But mileage is also among the most frequently challenged categories in audits — and reconstructed mileage logs are routinely rejected.
What the IRS wants to see is a contemporaneous log with: date, miles driven, route, business purpose, and starting/ending location. Deductably captures all of this automatically while you drive.
How Deductably supports you
1
Background GPS capture
The app detects drives in the background using location services. You don't have to remember to start a tracker — the trip is already captured when you arrive.
2
Geofence-aware classification
If a drive starts or ends at one of your properties, Deductably auto-tags it with that property and suggests the purpose (e.g., showing, inspection, supply pickup). One tap to confirm.
3
Route reconstruction
The full GPS trace is stored — not just the start/end. If a route is challenged, the polyline shows the actual path driven. Reviewable on a map before saving.
4
Privacy controls
You can pause background tracking any time. Personal drives are not auto-classified as business. The map data lives encrypted on your device with optional encrypted cloud backup.
What gets captured per trip
Date · Time
Start and end timestamps from device clock
Miles
Computed from GPS polyline, not odometer guesses
Route
Full GPS trace, viewable on map
Start · End
Resolved addresses + property linkage if a match
Purpose
Categorization linked to activity types
Vehicle
Which of your vehicles drove this trip
What competitors don't do
Geofence-aware auto-classification. Generic mileage apps make you classify every drive. Deductably knows your properties and suggests the purpose automatically.
Full route polyline, not just miles. Most tools store "12.4 miles between A and B" — Deductably stores the actual path so route challenges can be verified.
Activity ↔ mileage linking. The same drive can be tagged to a specific activity (e.g., "showing of 123 Main St"), so a single audit trail tells a complete story.
Standard mileage rate eligibility, business-purpose classification, and percentage-of-use determinations are tax decisions for you and your professional. Deductably provides the contemporaneous records; you and your CPA decide what's deductible.
Every showing, inspection, tenant meeting, repair, listing appointment, and admin task lives in one log — linked to the property it served, the mileage that got you there, and the receipts that documented it.
What this is for
The IRS standard for substantiating business activity is contemporaneous documentation showing what you did, when you did it, where, and why it was business. A spreadsheet you fill out at year-end doesn't qualify. A timer-tracked log with GPS does.
How Deductably supports you
1
Pick from a built-in catalog
Activity types are organized into six categories — Maintenance & Repairs, Tenant Relations, Property Management, Acquisition & Disposition, Travel, and Administration. Common ones (showing, inspection, cleaning, tenant call) are pre-built.
2
Or add a custom activity type
Need to track "Notarizing lease addendum"? Create it once and it's reusable. Custom activity types carry the same evidence captures as built-ins.
3
Capture evidence as you go
Start the timer, take a photo if relevant, leave a voice memo for context, and tap stop when done. GPS, duration, property linkage, and the evidence chain are all captured automatically.
4
Cross-link the audit story
The activity ties to the mileage that got you there and the receipts you collected. Three records that tell one story — exactly what an IRS auditor wants to see.
What competitors don't do
Cross-linked audit chain. Activity → Mileage → Expense linkage is rare. Most tools track these in separate silos.
Evidence per activity. GPS, photos, voice memos, timestamps all attached to a single entry — not buried in a separate notes app.
Timer-based logging by default. Late-entry detection is built in so the Record Strength Score reflects how contemporaneous your log actually is.
Whether a specific activity is deductible, materially participating, or qualifies under any IRC section is a facts-and-circumstances determination for your tax professional.
Every drive captured, every purpose tagged, every route reviewable. Deductably turns your background GPS data into a contemporaneous mileage log you can actually defend.
Why drives deserve their own workflow
Mileage isn't just an expense — it's the connective tissue between activities. A drive to a property is part of the story of the showing you did there. Deductably treats trips as first-class entries that link to activities and properties, not just as standalone mileage rows.
How Deductably supports you
1
Auto-detect drives
Background location services detect when you're moving by vehicle. The trip is captured silently until you stop. No "remember to hit start" friction.
2
Tag the purpose
When you open the app, the trip appears with a suggested purpose based on where you stopped. Confirm it (showing, inspection, supply run, tenant call, networking) or override.
3
Link to a property and activity
If the destination matches one of your properties, the link is automatic. If you logged an activity at the destination, the trip ties to that activity too.
4
Review on a map
See the actual route on a map before saving. Edit start/end if GPS missed the exact addresses. Discard if it was personal.
If you're a CPA reading this
Year-end mileage exports include per-trip detail — date, route polyline, business purpose, property linkage, and vehicle. Standard-mileage vs. actual-expense election remains your decision.
What competitors don't do
Cross-linked to activities. A trip isn't just miles — it's tied to the showing or inspection it enabled.
Property-aware geofencing. Drives ending at one of your properties auto-tag without you doing anything.
Route polyline preserved. Not just A→B miles. The actual path is stored for verification.
Deductibility of any mileage entry depends on the IRS business-use rules and your facts. Your tax professional makes the final call.
One-tap logging for the high-frequency activities that drive your hour counts — showings, listing appointments, client meetings, open houses, inspections. GPS proves you were on-site; every entry counts toward REP, MP, and §199A enterprise hours.
Why this matters
For an agent or broker, showings are the bread and butter. For an investor, property visits are how you build the §469(c)(7) hour count. Logging each one as it happens — not reconstructing them at year-end — is the difference between a defensible record and one Tax Court has shown skepticism toward.
How Deductably supports you
1
Tap the activity type
Showing, listing appointment, open house, client meeting, inspection — pre-built activity types tuned for real estate operators.
2
GPS confirms you were there
Start the timer when you arrive. GPS captures the location. End the timer when you leave. Now you have a contemporaneous record of duration + location, not just a memory.
3
Add evidence in context
Take a photo of the property, attach an inspection note, leave a voice memo with the client's interest level. All bundled with the activity record.
4
Hours flow into the right thresholds
If you're an agent pursuing REP, those hours count toward 750. If you're a rental owner counting MP, they count toward 500 for the property. The math happens automatically.
What competitors don't do
Multi-threshold credit. A single showing counts toward all applicable thresholds — REP, MP, §199A — at once.
Evidence per entry. GPS + photo + memo bundled into one record, not scattered across three apps.
Performer-type aware. If a showing was actually done by a co-agent or a property manager on your behalf, that's tracked separately so your personal hour count stays accurate.
Hour totals are based on your manual entries and timer captures. Whether you meet the §469(c)(7) tests or any §469(h) material participation test is a tax determination for your professional.
Snap a receipt and Deductably suggests the IRS category and the §263(a) treatment — repair, improvement, or de minimis safe harbor — based on the description and amount. Override anything. The receipt rides into your CPA-ready export attached.
The §263(a) classification decision
Every dollar you spend on a property gets classified one of three ways under IRC §263(a) and the related Treasury regs:
Repair — deductible this year as an ordinary expense
Improvement — capitalized and depreciated over 27.5 or 39 years
De minimis safe harbor — items under $2,500 expensed immediately under the §263(a) regs
Picking the wrong treatment doesn't just affect this year's return — it affects your cost basis at sale time. A $15,000 new roof miscategorized as a repair means you've understated your basis by $15,000, which means a higher gain when you sell. Deductably gets this right at the moment of expense.
How Deductably supports you
1
Snap the receipt
Photo of the receipt. EXIF metadata (date, GPS) captured automatically. Receipt image stored as the evidence artifact.
2
Auto-classification kicks in
The amount + description go through an IRC-aware heuristic that suggests: which category (Repairs, Improvements, Utilities, Marketing, etc.), which §263(a) treatment, and which property bucket it depreciates into if it's an improvement.
3
Review or override
Confirm the suggestion in one tap or override. Each override is preserved for future similar expenses — Deductably learns your patterns.
4
Flows into the right downstream record
A repair lands on Schedule E. An improvement lands on the Cost Basis Ledger AND a new depreciation schedule starts. A de minimis safe harbor expense gets the right tag for the §263(a) safe-harbor election on the return.
Categories the auto-classifier handles
Repairs
Routine maintenance — paint, fixing a leak, replacing a switch
Improvements
New roof, HVAC, structural, kitchen/bath remodel — capitalized
Utilities
Electric, gas, water — ongoing operating expenses
Insurance
Property hazard, liability, umbrella
Property Tax
Real estate taxes paid
Mortgage Interest
Tracked separately from principal
HOA Fees
Condo / homeowner-association dues
Marketing
Listing photos, ads, signs, professional services
Professional Fees
CPA, attorney, property manager, contractor labor
Travel · Meals
Business travel + 50% meal limit applied
What competitors don't do
§263(a) treatment baked into capture. Most expense apps just bucket "category." Deductably classifies repair vs. improvement vs. de minimis at the moment of capture, which is when it matters for basis.
Improvements auto-create depreciation schedules. Mark something as an improvement and the Cost Basis Ledger generates the MACRS depreciation rows automatically.
Receipt = evidence artifact. The photo isn't just attached — it's a hash-tracked evidence record linked to the expense, the property, and the relevant ledger entry.
Repair vs. improvement vs. de minimis is a facts-and-circumstances determination under §263(a) and the related Treasury regs. Deductably's suggestion is a starting point; your tax professional makes the final classification.
Year-end exports that look like what your CPA actually files from. Schedule E rentals, Form 4562 depreciation, Form 8949 sales, Form 4797 §1231/§1245 splits, Form 8824 §1031 exchanges — all backed by the underlying evidence chain.
What you get
Deductably produces two coordinated export packages at year-end:
Tax Year CPA Packet PDF — a single bundled report with all the source data your CPA needs: rental income, classified expenses, mileage, activity hours, cost basis ledger snapshot, any dispositions, and an evidence index. Cover page, footer disclaimer on every page.
Per-form CSV exports — line-item-ready data formatted to map onto Schedule E rows, Form 4562 columns, Form 8949 short/long-term boxes, Form 4797 sections, Form 8824 §1031 lines. Your CPA copies straight from the CSV.
How it gets generated
1
Pick a tax year
From the Reports screen, choose the tax year. Deductably gathers every record that touches that year — accruals, depreciation, completed sales, mileage, expenses, activities.
2
Preview before export
See the totals before generating. Rental income by property, expenses by IRS category, depreciation per asset, mileage by purpose. Catch issues here, not after the export.
3
Generate PDF + CSV
Single tap. Both formats. The PDF includes embedded evidence thumbnails for sampled high-value entries. The CSV is plain spreadsheet-ready data.
4
Share with your CPA
One-tap share to email, secure cloud share, or the in-app CPA portal if your CPA is a Deductably partner. The disclaimer "Prepared for your tax professional's review" is on every page.
Federal forms the export aligns to
Schedule E
Rental real estate income + expenses per property
Form 4562
Depreciation schedule (MACRS, §179, bonus)
Form 8949
Capital gains/losses on sales of property
Form 4797
§1231/§1245/§1250 sales of business property
Form 8824
§1031 like-kind exchange disclosures
Schedule D Summary
Aggregate capital gains rollup
What competitors don't do
Form-aligned, not generic. Most "CSV export" tools dump a flat ledger. Deductably formats columns to map directly onto specific IRS form lines.
Evidence index in the PDF. The CPA packet includes a per-entry evidence chain — receipt → expense → cost basis ledger → final report line.
Five forms covered, not just Schedule E. Most rental-tracking apps export Schedule E and call it done. Deductably covers the sale paths too.
Deductably exports records — it does not file returns or render opinions on tax positions. Your tax professional reviews the data and prepares the actual return.
When you sell, refinance, or 1031-exchange, the wizard walks you through the right path: §121 home-sale exclusion, §1031 like-kind exchange, §1033 involuntary conversion, or the standard §1245/§1250 split on a taxable sale. Out comes a finalized record your CPA can file from.
Why a wizard, not a form
Real estate dispositions are messy. The right tax treatment depends on whether the property was a primary residence (§121), an investment (§1031 maybe), an involuntary conversion (§1033), or just sold outright. Each path has its own math — recapture rules, exclusion caps, recognition windows, boot calculations.
Most tax software asks you to know which path you're on before it can help. The Sale Wizard asks the right questions and routes you to the right calculator.
The five paths
§121
Primary Residence Exclusion
If you owned and lived in the property 2 of the last 5 years: up to $250k single / $500k MFJ excluded. Wizard checks the use periods you logged, applies §121(b)(5) non-qualified-use ratio, and caps the depreciation-recapture portion at 25% per §121(d)(6).
§1031
Like-Kind Exchange
Defer gain by acquiring a replacement property. Wizard computes realized vs. recognized gain, handles boot (cash, non-like-kind, debt relief), computes the carryover basis to the replacement, and emits Form 8824-ready data.
§1033
Involuntary Conversion
Casualty, condemnation, or theft. Defer gain by replacing within 2 / 3 / 4 years depending on the cause. Wizard tracks the replacement window and computes deferred vs. recognized.
§1245
Personal-Property Recapture
For cost-segregated property components (appliances, fixtures with shorter MACRS lives). Recapture is taxed at ordinary rates up to the depreciation taken.
§1250
Unrecaptured §1250 Gain
The 25%-capped piece. For real property MACRS depreciation that wasn't already §1245 recapture. The wizard separates this from §1231 long-term capital so the math hits the right tax rate.
What the wizard outputs
A finalized Disposition record locked to the sale date — non-reversible without an explicit reopen step
The total gain or loss, split into §1245 ordinary recapture / unrecaptured §1250 / §1231 long-term capital
If §121 applied: excluded amount + recognized amount with the non-qualified-use math shown
If §1031 applied: deferred gain + replacement basis + Form 8824-ready data
If §1033 applied: replacement window deadline + deferred portion
An updated Cost Basis Ledger reflecting the disposition
If you're a CPA reading this
The wizard is a record-keeping tool. It computes the math from the ledger, but the choices that drive the path — was this really a §121-qualifying primary residence? Was the §1031 properly identified and closed in 180 days? — remain yours to verify and elect.
What competitors don't do
All five paths in one tool. Generic tax software handles §121 OR §1031 OR §1245 — Deductably handles all five and routes you to the right one based on what you logged.
§121 non-qualified-use ratio applied. Most calculators ignore §121(b)(5). The wizard tracks the use periods you logged and applies the ratio automatically.
Boot, debt relief, and §1031 carryover basis modeled. Not just "did you 1031?" — actual math: net boot, recognized portion, carryover basis to the replacement.
The Sale Wizard produces an estimate based on the ledger you've built. Whether §121, §1031, §1033, or any other tax election actually applies to your transaction is determined by your tax professional based on the facts and applicable law.
Three live 0–100 scores tell you exactly how documented your records are — Cost Basis Confidence, REP/MP Verification, and Evidence-to-Compliance — with ranked weak spots and prescriptive next steps. Record strength only, never a tax determination.
Why scores exist
It's easy to look at a year's worth of activities, expenses, and ledger entries and feel like everything's tracked. It's harder to see where the chain is weak — the activities without GPS, the improvements estimated without a receipt, the acquisition basis backed by a memory instead of a closing disclosure.
Each score rolls up the underlying records into a single number, weights them by impact, surfaces the weakest spots, and tells you the specific next step that would raise the score most. Record strength only — never a claim about what the IRS will accept.
The three scores
1
Cost Basis Confidence
Per-property score weighted by basis impact. A $50k undocumented improvement weighs more than a $500 one. Identifies your largest Estimated entries and tells you what evidence would upgrade them to Documented.
2
REP / MP Verification
Scores your hour log against §469(c)(7) and §469(h) record requirements. Weighted across hours-progress, performer-type alignment, GPS coverage, late-entry rate, photo coverage, property linkage, and average per-entry evidence.
3
Evidence-to-Compliance
Property-level rollup across receipt coverage, expense classification, activity GPS, mileage route capture, and the closing-disclosure status — the full compliance evidence chain in one number.
The remediation pattern
Each score returns more than just a number. It returns:
Tier label — Strong / Adequate / Needs support
Dimension breakdown — which underlying factors contributed how much
Weak spots — the specific records dragging the score down, ranked by impact
Suggested next steps — prescriptive actions like "Upload the closing disclosure on Maple Duplex" with the exact point gain
What competitors don't do
Quantified remediation, not just a grade. Most apps tell you "your records look good." Deductably tells you "uploading the closing disclosure on Maple Duplex would raise your Cost Basis Confidence from 64 to 78."
Three coordinated domains. Cost basis, REP/MP, and evidence-to-compliance share one scoring framework — confidence-tier weighted with ranked weak spots and prescriptive remediation across all three.
Track-not-advise language enforced. Scores are RECORD STRENGTH only. The language in every score response is verified by tests — never "audit proof," never "you qualify," never "IRS approved."
Scores reflect how well-documented your records are, not whether any particular position will be accepted by the IRS. Tax determinations remain the domain of your tax professional.
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Optional local-only mode means your records can stay on your device entirely. You control who sees what — your CPA only sees what you explicitly share.
What "privacy first" actually means here
Most fintech apps treat "your data" as their data. They train AI on it, sell anonymized cohorts to data brokers, and bury the consent in a 40-page Terms of Service. Deductably is built around a different default: your data stays yours, encrypted, and not for sale.
How Deductably supports you
1
Local-first storage
Records live encrypted on your device first. Cloud backup is opt-in. You can turn cloud sync off in Settings — Deductably enters local-only mode and your data stays exclusively on the device.
2
Encryption everywhere
TLS in transit. AES-256 at rest in cloud storage. SQLite-level encryption on the device. Receipt photos and evidence artifacts are signed with SHA-256 hashes that the hash-chained audit log binds together.
3
Granular sharing
When you share data with a CPA partner, you pick what they see — full ledger, just expenses, a single tax year, one property. Sharing is revocable. The partner sees a banner in their dashboard when they're accessing your data.
4
No selling, no AI training on your data
Your records aren't a training set. Aren't sold to data brokers. The AI assistant works against your records on demand — it doesn't memorize them.
What competitors don't do
Real local-only mode. Turn cloud sync off entirely and the app keeps working. Most "privacy-focused" apps still require a cloud account.
Hash-chained evidence. Every audit log entry binds cryptographically to the previous one. Tampering invalidates every downstream hash.
Per-record sharing. Not "share my account" — share specific records, specific properties, specific tax years, revocable.
Deductably's data security practices are documented at deductably.com/privacy. Local-only mode means cloud backup is disabled — data only lives on the device until you re-enable sync. We are not a tax preparation, legal, or financial advisory service.