Good Deals
Augusta Rule Calculator

The Augusta Rule, explained — and calculated.

Rent your home to your business. Up to 14 days a year. Tax-free.

The Augusta Rule (IRC §280A(g)) lets a business owner rent their personal residence to their own business for up to 14 days per year. The rent is a deductible business expense and tax-free personal income. Most owners earning $80K+ in profit can save $3,000–$15,000 a year with one careful filing.

Calculator

Enter your business profit, marginal tax rate, fair daily rental rate, and number of days. We'll compute your annual federal tax savings.

After expenses, before owner draw / W-2.
$
Combined federal + Medicare/NIIT. Typical owner: 32–37%.
%
Comp from local hotel/event-space pricing. Document with screenshots.
$
Max 14. Use for board meetings, retreats, strategy sessions.
days

What it takes to do this right

The IRS audits Augusta Rule claims. Six things you need on file:

  1. Fair market rate documentation. Print 3 comparable local rental quotes (hotel meeting space, corporate event venue) for similar capacity + duration. Save as PDFs.
  2. Business purpose for each rental day. Board meeting, strategy retreat, annual planning session. Documented agenda + meeting minutes.
  3. Formal rental agreement between the business entity and you personally. Signed, dated, terms specified.
  4. Invoice from you to the business for each rental period. Itemized with dates + amount + business purpose.
  5. Business pays the rent from the business bank account to your personal account. Not a wash entry; a real transfer.
  6. Do not exceed 14 days. Day 15 makes ALL the rental income taxable. Keep a calendar.
Source: Cornell LII — 26 U.S.C. §280A(g) (Rental of dwelling unit used as a residence) · IRS Publication 527 — Residential Rental Property

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What the Augusta Rule actually is

The Augusta Rule comes from a quirk in the tax code, codified at IRC §280A(g). It was originally written for homeowners in Augusta, Georgia who rented their houses out during The Masters tournament. The provision: if you rent your personal residence for fewer than 15 days in a year, you don't have to report the rental income at all. It's tax-free.

For business owners, the move is: rent your home to your own business for legitimate business purposes — board meetings, strategy retreats, annual planning sessions, off-site events. The business deducts the rent as an ordinary expense. You receive the rent as tax-free income. The same dollar gets a deduction on the business side and is excluded from income on the personal side.

The math, simplified: $1,500/day × 14 days = $21,000 in rent. Your business deducts $21,000. You receive $21,000 tax-free. If you're in a 32% marginal bracket, that's $6,720 in annual federal tax savings — every year.

Who can use it

What you can NOT do

How it stacks with other moves

The Augusta Rule is a structural foundation move. It pairs with:

The right combination depends on entity, profit level, family situation, and goals. That's what we walk through in the Discovery Call.

Common questions

How much do I actually save?

It depends on (a) your fair daily rental rate, (b) days rented up to 14, and (c) your marginal tax bracket. A typical $1,500/day rate × 12 days × 32% bracket = $5,760/yr. Use the calculator above with your actual numbers.

What's a fair daily rental rate?

Compare to local meeting/event spaces with similar capacity. In a major metro for a 2,500-sq-ft home: typically $1,000-$3,000/day. In a smaller market: $500-$1,500/day. Get 3 hotel meeting-space quotes and 2 corporate-event-venue quotes; average them.

Will this trigger an audit?

The Augusta Rule itself is not an audit flag. Excessive rates, missing documentation, or claiming on a sole-prop without S-Corp election are. Done correctly with the 6-step compliance checklist above, this is a clean strategy that survives audit.

Does this work for a home office?

The Augusta Rule and the home-office deduction are different rules and don't combine cleanly on the same days. Most owners take BOTH: home-office deduction year-round, Augusta Rule for 12-14 specific business event days.

I'm a sole prop. Can I still use this?

Not directly — the IRS treats the business and you as the same taxpayer, so renting to yourself is a wash. The move is to elect S-Corp (Form 2553), then use Augusta. Most sole props at $80K+ profit save $15-25K/yr just from the S-Corp election, before adding Augusta on top.

What if I have a vacation home? Can I do this twice?

Yes — §280A(g) applies to each "dwelling unit used as a residence." A primary home + a vacation home you regularly use can each be rented up to 14 days. That's potentially $40-60K/yr in tax-free rent for high-income owners with two homes.

What's the IRS audit risk?

Low when documented correctly. The IRS has audited Augusta Rule claims that lacked: market-rate documentation, business-purpose minutes, formal rental agreements, or bank-transfer evidence. With the 6-step compliance above, multiple tax-court cases (e.g., Sinopoli v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 2023-105) have upheld correctly-structured Augusta claims.

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About Good Deals

Good Deals is the planning workbook + advisory practice of Andrew Escher, CFA Charterholder + Investment Adviser Representative based in Austin, TX. Independent stack: Altruist for investment custody, BackNine for insurance placement, Good Deals for the planning layer that ties them together.

We work with solo professionals, agency owners, and business owners at $300K–$5M in revenue who want structural tax planning, an Investment Policy Statement, and a long-arc Roadmap — without the typical AUM-fee pitch.

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