So let's say instead you have a client who owns a 60-unit apartment building.  Average tenant turnover is a year, and it takes a day to close out lease with old tenant, inspect the place, show it, investigate a new tenant application and complete the lease.  So there are sixty days of work involved, but you're not going to put it on Schedule C, because that's just what Schedule E landlords do.  Now you have a client who manages 60 storage units, average stay is six months, takes half a day to do the same work.  Only reason you're going to put it on Schedule C is "that's the way it's always been done."  

These owners talk to each other and eventually, someone is going to point out that the donations to the Social Security Trust Fund are strictly voluntary.