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Which Forms To Use: Rental Property Taxes (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Which Forms To Use” within rental property taxes. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 527 (2025), Residential Rental Property, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

Figuring the net income or loss for a residential rental activity may involve more than just listing the income and deductions on Schedule E (Form 1040). There are activities that don’t qualify to use Schedule E, such as when the activity isn’t engaged in to make a profit or when you provide substantial services in conjunction with the property.

There are also the limitations that may need to be applied if you have a net loss on Schedule E. There are two: (1) the limitation based on the amount of investment you have at risk in your rental activity, and (2) the special limits imposed on passive activities.

You may also have a gain or loss related to your rental property from a casualty or theft. This is considered separately from the income and expense information you report on Schedule E.

Which Forms To Use

The basic form for reporting residential rental income and expenses is Schedule E (Form 1040). However, don’t use that schedule to report a not-for-profit activity. See Not Rented for Profit, later, in chapter 4. There are also other rental situations in which forms other than Schedule E would be used.

Schedule E (Form 1040)

If you rent buildings, rooms, or apartments, and provide basic services such as heat and light, trash collection, etc., you normally report your rental income and expenses on Schedule E, Part I.

List your total income, expenses, and depreciation for each rental property. Be sure to enter the number of fair rental and personal-use days on line 2.

If you have more than three rental or royalty properties, complete and attach as many Schedules E as are needed to separately list all of the properties. However, fill in lines 23a through 26 on only one Schedule E. The figures on lines 23a through 26 on that Schedule E should be the combined totals for all properties reported on your Schedules E.

On Schedule E, page 1, line 18, enter the depreciation you are claiming for each property. You may also need to attach Form 4562 to claim some or all of your depreciation. See Form 4562, later, for more information.

If you have a loss from your rental real estate activity, you may also need to complete one or both of the following forms.

Page 2 of Schedule E is used to report income or loss from partnerships, S corporations, estates, trusts, and real estate mortgage investment conduits. If you need to use page 2 of Schedule E and you have more than three rental or royalty properties, be sure to use page 2 of the same Schedule E you used to enter the combined totals for your rental activity on page 1. Also, include the amount from line 26 (Part I) in the “Total income or (loss)” on line 41 (Part V).

Form 4562.

You must complete and attach Form 4562 if you are claiming the following depreciation in your rental activity.

  • Depreciation, including the special depreciation allowance, on property placed in service during 2025.

  • Depreciation on listed property (such as a car), regardless of when it was placed in service.

Otherwise, figure your depreciation on your own worksheet. You don’t have to attach these computations to your return, but you should keep them in your records for future reference.

You may also need to attach Form 4562 if you are claiming a section 179 deduction, amortizing costs that began during 2025, or claiming any other deduction for a vehicle, including the standard mileage rate or lease expenses.

See Pub. 946 for information on preparing Form 4562.

Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Business

Generally, Schedule C is used when you provide substantial services in conjunction with the property or the rental is part of a trade or business as a real estate dealer.

Providing substantial services.

If you provide substantial services that are primarily for your tenant’s convenience, such as regular cleaning, changing linen, or maid service, you report your rental income and expenses on Schedule C. Use Form 1065, U.S. Return of Partnership Income, if your rental activity is a partnership (including a partnership with your spouse unless it is a qualified joint venture). Substantial services don’t include the furnishing of heat and light, cleaning of public areas, trash collection, etc. For more information, see Pub. 334, Tax Guide for Small Business. Also, you may have to pay self-employment tax on your rental income using Schedule SE (Form 1040), Self-Employment Tax. For a discussion of “substantial services,” see Real Estate Rents in chapter 5 of Pub. 334.

Qualified Joint Venture (QJV)

If you and your spouse each materially participate (see Material participation under Passive Activity Limits, later) as the only members of a jointly owned and operated real estate business, and you file a joint return for the tax year, you can make a joint election to be treated as a QJV instead of a partnership. This election, in most cases, won’t increase the total tax owed on the joint return, but it does give each of you credit for social security earnings on which retirement benefits are based and for Medicare coverage if your rental income is subject to self-employment tax.

If you make this election, you must report rental real estate income on Schedule E (or Schedule C, if you provide substantial services). You won’t be required to file Form 1065 for any year the election is in effect. Rental real estate income generally isn’t included in net earnings from self-employment subject to self-employment tax and is generally subject to the passive activity limits.

If you and your spouse filed a Form 1065 for the year prior to the election, the partnership terminates at the end of the tax year immediately preceding the year the election takes effect.

For more information on QJVs, go to IRS.gov/QJV.

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.

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