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The Landlord's Schedule E Deduction Checklist
The rental write-offs small landlords miss most, each one mapped to the exact IRS Schedule E line it belongs on. Two pages. Print it, tick what applies, keep the receipt behind it.
Nothing is asked for it, and nothing is held back. The figures on it do move: the mileage rate changed on 1 July, part way through the tax year. You can have us email you when one changes. Came from the QR code in the record book? This is the sheet it points to, and you can register your copy for the figures that change each tax year.
Why a checklist beats a bigger shoebox
Most landlords do not lose deductions because they were not allowed. They lose them because nobody wrote the expense down, or wrote it down somewhere the tax return could not read.
Schedule E does not ask what you spent. It asks what you spent on line 7. This checklist is built the way the form reads, so a cost gets filed where it belongs the day it happens rather than reconstructed in April.
A number without a record behind it is a number you can lose.
A few of the lines it covers
- Advertising and listing fees line 5
- Mileage, or actual auto costs line 6
- Cleaning, lawn care, pest control line 7
- Landlord and liability insurance line 9
- Tax prep and legal for the rental line 10
- Repairs: leaks, locks, paint line 14
- Supplies and small tools line 15
- Depreciation on improvements line 18
Worth knowing before you total your miles
2026 is a split year for mileage. This book carries both rates — and the odometer readings.
The IRS raised the business standard mileage rate part way through 2026. If you drive for your rentals, the two halves of the year are deducted at different rates and have to be totaled separately.
The standard rate and actual vehicle costs are alternatives. You may claim one or the other, not both.
Optional
When one of these numbers changes, we’ll tell you.
The mileage rate above moved on 1 July, part way through the tax year. The figures behind this checklist come from the IRS’s own instructions, and several of them move, sometimes mid-year like that one. When one does, a short note goes up saying what changed and which Schedule E line it touches. A few a year, and nothing else.
Optional, and it changes nothing about the checklist above, which stays free and ungated with no signup either way. Every note is posted openly at deedwell.co/updates, no email required and nothing you have to subscribe to. The signup is hosted by Gumroad rather than sitting on this page, so we never put a form in front of you.
If the checklist earns a spot on your desk
The Rental Property Record Book
The checklist tells you where a cost belongs. The record book gives you somewhere to put it, all year, in the order your tax return reads. It is built backwards from Schedule E: a plain-English map of every line, a worked example month, twelve monthly rent rolls, 42 expense-ledger pages that each close with their own 15-box Schedule E tally so a year of entries adds up instead of piling up, mileage with the 2026 split rate already handled, a repairs versus improvements tracker, depreciation, and a year-end summary you copy straight onto the form.
So you know what it is: a structured record book organized around one tax form, for the landlord with one to a few rentals. It is not a blank ledger and it is not software. If you want free-form columns, a plain ledger will serve you better and cost less.
Already using the record book?
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Questions landlords actually ask
The three that come up most.
What is the IRS standard mileage rate for 2026?
2026 is a split year. The business standard mileage rate is 72.5 cents per mile for trips from 1 January through 30 June 2026 (IRS Notice 2026-10), and 76 cents per mile from 1 July through 31 December 2026 (IRS Announcement 2026-11, Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-29). Landlords who drive for their rentals must total each half of the year separately.
Which Schedule E line does a rental expense go on?
Schedule E groups rental expenses on lines 5 through 19: advertising is line 5, auto and travel line 6, cleaning and maintenance line 7, commissions line 8, insurance line 9, legal and professional fees line 10, management fees line 11, mortgage interest line 12, other interest line 13, repairs line 14, supplies line 15, taxes line 16, utilities line 17, depreciation line 18, and other expenses line 19. Line 4 is royalties and does not apply to rentals.
What is the difference between a repair and an improvement?
A repair keeps the property in ordinary working order — fixing a leak, patching drywall, repainting — and is deducted in the current year on Schedule E line 14. An improvement betters, restores or adapts the property — a new roof, a room addition, a whole HVAC system — and must be depreciated on line 18. Treating an improvement as a repair is a common audit issue.
Deedwell publishes record-keeping tools, not tax advice. Schedule E line numbers and the figures on this page reflect current IRS guidance as cited, and tax rules change. Confirm your own situation with a tax professional before you file.