Schedule E, line by line.
Nearly every landlord’s rental income flows onto one IRS form: Schedule E. Once you see how its lines map to the money you already track, tax season stops being mysterious and starts being clerical.
Part I
Income at the top, expenses beneath
The form isn’t asking for anything exotic. It wants your rent on line 3 and your costs sorted into named buckets below. If your ledger already carries those categories, filling in Schedule E is transcription — not reconstruction.
- Line 3 — the rent you collected this year
- Lines 5–19 — each category of expense, on its own line
- Line 18 — depreciation, the deduction you don’t write a check for
One per property
Each property gets its own column
Schedule E gives each property its own column, so the IRS sees each one’s performance on its own. That’s exactly why BareBones keeps a separate running book per property — the shape of your records already matches the shape of the form.
- Report up to three properties per Schedule E
- Income and expenses stay separated by address
- A per-property ledger maps straight across
Not tax advice. Line numbers and rules can change year to year, and your situation may differ. Confirm against the current IRS Schedule E instructions or a tax professional before you file.
File from records, not memory.
Categorize as you go and the year’s totals are ready when the form is. Export straight into your Schedule E.