Schedule E, line by line, for a landlord with one to five rentals
Part I of Schedule E is where most small landlords report each rental: rent in, expenses out, depreciation, and the net. Here is every line in plain words, and which ones DoorWorth fills from your records.
Last reviewed October 28, 2026 · Review by April 28, 2027
Cited facts, not advice. Line numbers and rules below come from the IRS's 2025 Schedule E and its 2025 instructions, the latest the IRS had posted when this page was checked (2026-10-28). Check the 2026 form when it's out, because lines can move. Your CPA decides what goes on your return.
One column per rental
Each Schedule E page has three columns, A, B and C, one per property. With four or five rentals you attach a second Schedule E. The IRS's words: use a separate column for each rental property, and attach as many Schedules E as you need. (2025 Instructions for Schedule E, checked 2026-10-28.) Lines 23a through 26 are totals across all of your properties, so you fill them in once.
Part I, line by line
| Line | What goes there | What DoorWorth fills |
|---|---|---|
| A, B | Did you make payments in the year that would require you to file Forms 1099, and did you or will you file them? | The 1099 season card adds up what you paid each vendor, by year. See the 2026 threshold guide. |
| 1a | Each property's street address. | Your property's address. |
| 1b | Type of property, as a code: 1 single family residence, 2 multi-family residence, 3 vacation or short-term rental, 4 commercial, 5 land, 6 royalties, 7 self-rental, 8 other. | You pick the code. |
| 2 | Fair rental days and personal use days, plus the qualified joint venture (QJV) box. If your personal use is more than the greater of 14 days or 10% of the days rented at fair rental value, you used the unit as a home, and different limits apply. | Not counted by DoorWorth. Enter these yourself. |
| 3 | Rents received. Advance rent counts in the year you receive it. A security deposit you plan to return isn't income, but any part you keep is income in the year you keep it. | The rent payments you recorded in that calendar year. |
| 4 | Royalties received. | Not used for rentals. |
| 5 | Advertising. | No separate category. Log it as Other and tell your CPA what it was. |
| 6 | Auto and travel. With the standard mileage rate (70 cents a mile for 2025) you add parking and tolls, and you can't also deduct actual car costs. Claiming car expenses means filling out Form 4562, Part V. | Your mileage log: miles times the rate on each trip. |
| 7 | Cleaning and maintenance. | Your Cleaning & Maintenance receipts. |
| 8 | Commissions. | No separate category. Log it as Other. |
| 9 | Insurance. | Your Insurance receipts. In the current year, if you haven't logged any, an estimate from your monthly premium, marked (est.). |
| 10 | Legal and other professional fees, including tax advice and tax-prep fees for the rental part. | No separate category. Log it as Other. |
| 11 | Management fees. | Your Management Fees receipts. |
| 12 | Mortgage interest paid to banks and other financial institutions, usually the figure on your Form 1098. | In the current year, if you haven't logged interest receipts, an estimate from your loan terms, marked (est.). For a finished year, use the figure on your Form 1098. |
| 13 | Other interest, such as mortgage interest not paid to a financial institution, or your share when someone else got the Form 1098. | Interest receipts show on their own line. Your CPA decides whether each is line 12 or 13. |
| 14 | Repairs: costs that keep the property in ordinary, efficient operating condition. Improvements aren't repairs. They're capitalized and depreciated. | Your Repairs receipts. Receipts you mark Improvements (Capital) are never expensed. They go into depreciation instead. |
| 15 | Supplies. | Your Supplies receipts. |
| 16 | Taxes, such as the property tax on the rental. | Your Property Taxes receipts. In the current year, if you haven't logged any, an estimate from your monthly figure, marked (est.). |
| 17 | Utilities you pay as the landlord. | Your Utilities receipts. |
| 18 | Depreciation expense or depletion. Form 4562 is required in some years, for example for property first placed in service that year. | A depreciation estimate, marked (est.). See below. |
| 19 | Other ordinary and necessary expenses not listed on lines 5 through 18. | Your Other receipts. |
| 20 | Total expenses: lines 5 through 19 added up. | The property's total expenses. |
| 21 | Rents (and royalties) minus total expenses. If that's a loss, Form 6198 (at-risk rules) may come into it. | The property's Net. |
| 22 | Deductible rental real estate loss after limitation, if any, from Form 8582 (the passive activity loss rules). | Not filled in. DoorWorth can show a passive-loss check if you choose your income band (see below). |
| 23a–23e | Totals across all properties: rents (line 3), royalties (line 4), mortgage interest (line 12), depreciation (line 18) and total expenses (line 20). | Portfolio Net adds up your properties. |
| 24–26 | Income (positive line 21 amounts), losses (royalty losses plus line 22 rental losses), and the total, which goes to Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 5 when Parts II through IV don't apply to you. | Not filled in. Your CPA or tax software carries these. |
Sources: Schedule E (Form 1040), 2025 for the line numbers and captions; 2025 Instructions for Schedule E for lines 2, 6, 10, 12–14, 18, 19, 21 and 22; Publication 527 (2025), Residential Rental Property for advance rent, security deposits and repairs versus improvements. All checked 2026-10-28.
Depreciation, in plain words
Depreciation lets you deduct the cost of the building (not the land) a little each year while it wears out. No money leaves your pocket, but it lowers your taxable rental income.
- 27.5 years. Residential rental property is depreciated straight-line over a 27.5-year recovery period under the general depreciation system.
- Land doesn't count. You can't depreciate the cost of land, so only the building's share of the price is depreciated.
- It starts when the rental is ready. Depreciation begins when the property is placed in service, meaning ready and available to rent, even if no tenant has moved in yet.
- Mid-month convention. In the first year, the property is treated as placed in service in the middle of its month, so the first year gets a partial share.
- Improvements are capitalized and depreciated, not deducted as repairs.
Source: IRS Publication 527 (2025), checked 2026-10-28.
How DoorWorth estimates it
DoorWorth uses 80% of the purchase price as the building's share unless you set your own land split, adds any rehab you did before the placed-in-service date you set, and spreads that over 27.5 years with the mid-month convention. Capital improvements get their own schedules. The line is marked (est.). The depreciation schedule your CPA keeps is the one that counts.
Example (made-up purchase price). A $150,000 rental placed in service in July 2025. Building share at 80%: $120,000. A full year is $120,000 ÷ 27.5 = $4,363.64. July is month 7, so the first year gets (12.5 − 7) ÷ 12 of a full year: $2,000.00 for 2025, then $4,363.64 for 2026.
The passive-loss check (line 22)
If your rentals show a loss, how much of it you can use this year depends on the passive activity loss rules. If you actively participate, you may be able to deduct up to $25,000 of rental loss against other income. That allowance shrinks once modified adjusted gross income is over $100,000 and is generally gone at $150,000. (Publication 527 (2025).) DoorWorth never asks for your exact income. If you pick an income band and confirm that you actively participate, it shows the usable amount, or a range when your band falls in the phase-out. Form 8582 itself is for your CPA or tax software.
What DoorWorth doesn't do
It doesn't file your return, pick your property-type code, count fair rental or personal-use days, or prepare Form 4562 or Form 8582. Estimates only ever cover the current year. For a finished year, only what you recorded counts, so a gap is never filled with a guess. Tax and mileage reports are on the free plan, and you can export a Schedule E–style summary and a mileage log to hand to your CPA.
Have the lines ready before your CPA asks
Log rent, receipts and miles through the year, and DoorWorth lays them out by Schedule E line for each property.
Open the web app →Sources
- IRS, Schedule E (Form 1040), 2025: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040se.pdf (checked 2026-10-28)
- IRS, 2025 Instructions for Schedule E (Form 1040): https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040se (checked 2026-10-28)
- IRS, Publication 527 (2025), Residential Rental Property: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p527 (checked 2026-10-28)
More guides: The 2026 1099 threshold · Security deposit return deadlines by state · Max-Bid calculator