Tax Reporting

Tax reporting is where everything in RealBooks comes together. Every expense you’ve categorized, every property you’ve tracked, every loan payment and depreciation schedule — it all rolls up into IRS-ready reports that you or your CPA can use at filing time.

No exporting spreadsheets. No re-entering data into tax software. No chasing down missing receipts in February.

How It Works

RealBooks builds your tax reports automatically from the data already in the platform:

1. Expenses categorized to IRS-aligned categories map to the correct schedule lines
2. Income from rental payments flows into the income sections
3. Depreciation from your property basis and cost segmentation analysis populates Form 4562
4. Loan interest separated from principal payments appears on the correct deduction lines
5. Capital gains from property sales calculate for Schedule D and Form 8949

You don’t need to do anything special at tax time — just keep your books current throughout the year and the reports build themselves.

IRS Schedules

RealBooks generates the following IRS schedules and forms:

Schedule D — Capital Gains and Losses

Generated when you sell a property. Calculates:

• Original cost basis (purchase price + capital improvements)
• Adjusted basis (after depreciation)
• Gain or loss on the sale
• Short-term vs. long-term classification (based on holding period)

Schedule E — Supplemental Income and Loss

The primary form for rental property income and expenses. RealBooks populates:

• Line 3 — Rents received
• Line 5 — Advertising
• Line 7 — Cleaning and maintenance
• Line 8 — Commissions
• Line 9 — Insurance
• Line 10 — Legal and professional fees
• Line 11 — Management fees
• Line 12 — Mortgage interest
• Line 13 — Other interest
• Line 14 — Repairs
• Line 15 — Supplies
• Line 16 — Taxes
• Line 17 — Utilities
• Line 18 — Depreciation
• Line 19 — Other expenses

Each line is populated from your categorized expenses. If an expense was categorized as “Insurance,” it appears on Line 9. This is why getting your categories right throughout the year matters.

Schedule F — Profit or Loss from Farming

For investors with agricultural properties or farmland. Tracks farm income and expenses separately from rental income.

Form 8949 — Sales and Dispositions of Capital Assets

Details each property sale transaction:

• Date acquired and date sold
• Proceeds (sale price)
• Cost or adjusted basis
• Gain or loss
• Adjustment codes (if applicable)

Used in conjunction with Schedule D for capital gains reporting.

Form 8582 — Passive Activity Loss Limitations

Calculates whether your rental losses are deductible against other income:

• Aggregates passive income and losses across all rental properties
• Applies the $25,000 active participation allowance (income phase-out applies)
• Tracks suspended losses that carry forward to future years

Note

If you qualify as a Real Estate Professional under IRS rules (750+ hours in real estate activities), your rental activities may not be subject to passive activity limitations. RealBooks generates Form 8582 regardless — your CPA will determine whether it applies to your situation.

Form 4562 — Depreciation and Amortization

Tracks depreciation for every property and capital improvement:

• Standard straight-line depreciation (27.5 years residential, 39 years commercial)
• Accelerated depreciation from cost segregation analysis
• Bonus depreciation (when applicable under current tax law)
• Section 179 deductions (for qualifying property)
• Depreciation on capital improvements with their own recovery periods

Generating Tax Reports

Year-End Tax Package

At the end of the tax year (or whenever you’re ready to file):

1. Go to Tax Reporting > Tax Schedules
2. Select the tax year
3. Choose which entities to include (or select all)
4. Click Generate

RealBooks compiles all the relevant schedules based on your data. Each schedule is generated per entity — so if you have three LLCs, you’ll get three separate Schedule E forms.

Reviewing Before Filing

Before handing reports to your CPA, review:

• Income completeness — Are all rental payments recorded?
• Expense categories — Are there any uncategorized or pending transactions?
• Depreciation — Is the basis correct for each property?
• Property sales — If you sold a property, are the sale details entered?

RealBooks flags common issues:

• Expenses with missing categories
• Properties with incomplete purchase data
• Transactions still in “pending review” status

Tip

Run a preliminary report in November or December. This gives you time to clean up any issues before the filing deadline, and gives you an early read on your tax position so you can plan accordingly.

Standard Reporting

Available on all plans, standard reports give you ongoing visibility into your finances:

Profit & Loss by Property

See income minus expenses for each property over any time period. Useful for:

• Monthly performance tracking
• Comparing properties against each other
• Identifying which properties are cash-flow positive or negative

Expense Summary by Category

Total expenses broken down by IRS category. Useful for:

• Spotting spending trends
• Identifying areas where you’re over or under budget
• Providing quick summaries to partners or lenders

Portfolio Performance Overview

High-level metrics across your entire portfolio:

• Total income and expenses
• Overall NOI
• Equity positions
• Year-over-year comparisons

Ad Hoc Reporting

On paid plans, create custom reports with flexible filters:

• Date range — Any custom period
• Entity — One, multiple, or all
• Property — One, multiple, or all
• Category — Filter to specific expense types
• Custom attributes — Filter by market, property class, or any attribute you’ve defined

Ad hoc reports can be saved for reuse, so you don’t have to rebuild the same filters every month.

PennyAI Reporting

Ask PennyAI questions in plain language and get instant answers:

• “What did I spend on repairs for my Oak Street property last quarter?”
• “Show me total income across all entities for 2025.”
• “Which property had the highest NOI this year?”
• “Compare expenses between my two LLCs.”

PennyAI generates the report on the fly and presents the results. You can export the output or drill into the underlying transactions.

PennyAI Reporting is available on paid plans (Bird Dog and above).

Exporting Reports

All reports can be exported in multiple formats:

Format	Best For
PDF	Sending to your CPA, lender, or partners — clean, formatted, and print-ready
CSV	Importing into tax software, spreadsheets, or other financial tools

Sharing with Your CPA

The most efficient workflow is to give your CPA direct access:

1. Go to Settings > User Management
2. Invite your CPA with Viewer role
3. They log in and pull reports directly

This eliminates:

• Emailing files back and forth
• Version confusion when numbers change after you’ve already sent a report
• Your CPA waiting on you to send updated data

Your CPA sees the same data you see, updated in real time.

Tax Planning Throughout the Year

Don’t wait until January to think about taxes. RealBooks gives you real-time visibility into your tax position:

• Year-to-date income and deductions — Know where you stand at any point
• Depreciation projections — See how much depreciation you’ll claim this year
• Estimated tax liability — Get a rough picture of what you’ll owe (or save)

Use this data to make informed decisions:

• Should you accelerate a repair into this tax year?
• Is it worth running cost segregation on a recent acquisition?
• Do you have room for more passive losses, or are you at the limit?

Common Questions

When should I generate my tax reports? Generate preliminary reports in November or December to catch issues early. Generate final reports once all year-end transactions are reconciled, typically in January or early February.

Do I still need a CPA? RealBooks generates the schedules and does the math, but it doesn’t file your taxes. Most investors should still work with a CPA who understands real estate — especially if you have multiple entities, are doing 1031 exchanges, or qualify as a Real Estate Professional.

What if I find an error after generating reports? Fix the underlying data (edit the transaction, update the property details, etc.) and regenerate the reports. There’s no “locked” state — reports always reflect your current data.

Can RealBooks handle multiple states? RealBooks generates federal tax schedules. State-specific reporting varies and may require additional work with your CPA. The expense data and property records are all available for state reporting — the platform just doesn’t generate state-specific forms.

What about 1031 exchanges? RealBooks tracks the properties and financials involved, but 1031 exchange reporting has specific legal requirements that should be managed by your qualified intermediary and CPA. The capital gains calculations in RealBooks can feed into that process.

How does depreciation work for properties I’ve owned for years? When you add a property to RealBooks, enter the original purchase price and date. RealBooks calculates the accumulated depreciation and the remaining schedule. If you’ve been claiming depreciation on your prior returns, the numbers should match. If they don’t, work with your CPA to reconcile.