Generating Tax Forms

RealBooks generates the IRS forms and schedules that real estate investors need at tax time. This guide walks you through what gets generated, how to pull the reports, what to check before filing, and how to get them to your CPA.

What Forms Does RealBooks Produce?

Here’s every form RealBooks generates, what it’s for, and when you need it:

Form	What It Covers	When You Need It
Schedule E	Rental income and expenses	Every year you own rental property
Form 4562	Depreciation and amortization	Every year (tracks annual depreciation)
Form 8582	Passive activity loss limitations	When rental losses exceed rental income
Schedule D	Capital gains and losses	When you sell a property
Form 8949	Details of property sales	When you sell a property
Schedule F	Farm income and expenses	Only for agricultural properties

Schedule E — Your Most Important Form

If you own rental property, Schedule E is the form that matters most. It reports:

• Rental income received
• Every deductible expense (organized by IRS line items)
• Depreciation
• Net income or loss per property

RealBooks generates a separate Schedule E for each entity. If you have properties in three LLCs, you’ll get three Schedule E forms.

Form 4562 — Depreciation

Filed alongside Schedule E, Form 4562 tracks:

• Standard depreciation on your building (27.5 years residential, 39 years commercial)
• Accelerated depreciation from cost segregation
• Bonus depreciation (when applicable)
• Depreciation on capital improvements

RealBooks calculates this automatically from your property’s purchase price, date, and any capital improvements you’ve recorded.

Form 8582 — Passive Loss Limitations

Most rental activities are “passive” for tax purposes, which means losses can only offset passive income. Form 8582 calculates:

• Your total passive income and losses
• Whether you qualify for the $25,000 active participation exception
• Suspended losses that carry forward to future years

Schedule D + Form 8949 — Property Sales

When you sell a property, these forms report:

• What you paid (adjusted basis = purchase price + improvements - depreciation)
• What you sold it for
• Your gain or loss
• Whether it’s short-term or long-term

Schedule F — Farm Properties

Only needed if you own agricultural land that produces farm income. Most investors won’t need this.

Generating Your Tax Package

Step-by-Step

1. Go to Tax Reporting > Tax Schedules
2. Select the tax year (e.g., 2025)
3. Choose which entities to include
   • Select all for a complete package
   • Or generate one entity at a time if you prefer
4. Click Generate

RealBooks compiles every relevant form based on your data. If you didn’t sell any properties, Schedule D and Form 8949 won’t be generated. If you don’t have farm income, Schedule F is skipped.

What Gets Pulled In

The forms are populated from data you’ve already entered throughout the year:

Data Source	Feeds Into
Categorized expenses	Schedule E (expense lines)
Recorded rental income	Schedule E (income line)
Property purchase price and date	Form 4562 (depreciation basis)
Capital improvements	Form 4562 (additional depreciation)
Cost segregation schedules	Form 4562 (accelerated depreciation)
Loan interest payments	Schedule E, Line 12
Property sale details	Schedule D + Form 8949

Reviewing Before You File

Never hand reports to your CPA without reviewing them first. RealBooks does the math, but the data is only as good as what you’ve entered. Here’s a pre-filing checklist:

1. Check for Uncategorized Transactions

Go to Expenses and filter for Pending or Uncategorized. Every uncategorized expense is a potential missed deduction. Categorize them before generating final reports.

2. Verify Rental Income Is Complete

Check that all 12 months of rent are recorded for each property. If you collect rent outside of RealBooks (e.g., cash or Venmo), make sure those payments are entered manually.

3. Review Expense Categories

Spot-check a few transactions per property:

• Are repairs correctly categorized as repairs (not capital improvements)?
• Are capital improvements correctly categorized (not repairs)?
• Are management fees, insurance, and taxes on the right lines?

4. Confirm Property Purchase Details

For Form 4562 to be accurate, each property needs:

• Correct purchase price
• Correct purchase date
• Land value separated from building value (land isn’t depreciable)

5. Check for Missing Properties

If you acquired a property during the year, make sure it’s in RealBooks with complete purchase details.

6. Verify Property Sales

If you sold a property, confirm:

• Sale price and date are entered
• Closing costs from the sale are recorded
• The adjusted basis looks correct (purchase price + improvements - accumulated depreciation)

7. Look at the Numbers

Does the net income or loss per property make sense? If a property that’s been cash-flowing shows a huge loss, something might be miscategorized. If a property shows no depreciation, the purchase details might be incomplete.

Tip

Run a preliminary report in November or December — well before the filing deadline. This gives you weeks to fix issues instead of scrambling in April.

Exporting Your Reports

Once you’re satisfied with the reports:

1. Click Export on the generated report
2. Choose your format:

Format	When to Use
PDF	Sending to your CPA via email or secure file share. Clean, formatted, print-ready.
CSV	Importing into tax preparation software (TurboTax, Drake, Lacerte, etc.) or your own spreadsheets.

You can export individual forms or the complete tax package as a single download.

Handing Reports to Your CPA

Option 1: Give Your CPA Direct Access (Recommended)

The easiest approach is to invite your CPA to RealBooks with Viewer access:

1. Go to Settings > User Management
2. Click Invite User
3. Enter your CPA’s email and select the Viewer role
4. They’ll receive an email invitation to create a login

With Viewer access, your CPA can:

• Pull any report directly — no waiting on you
• Review expense categorizations and flag questions
• Access depreciation schedules and cost segmentation data
• See real-time data, not a snapshot from when you exported

This eliminates:

• Back-and-forth emails (“Can you send me the Schedule E for the LLC?”)
• Version confusion when you update data after exporting
• Delays caused by you being busy when your CPA needs something

Option 2: Export and Send

If your CPA prefers receiving files:

1. Generate the full tax package
2. Export as PDF
3. Send via email or upload to their secure portal

Include a cover note with:

• Which entities are included
• Any unusual items (property sale, new acquisition, cost segregation)
• Questions you have about categorizations you weren’t sure about
• A reminder of your entity structure if it changed during the year

What Your CPA Does with These Reports

Your CPA uses the RealBooks output to:

1. Verify the numbers — They’ll check that income, expenses, and depreciation look reasonable
2. Transfer to tax software — The data feeds into their preparation software (the CSV export makes this fast)
3. Apply tax strategies — They may adjust for things like the Real Estate Professional designation, 1031 exchange treatment, or state-specific rules
4. File your returns — The federal schedules RealBooks generates are the foundation of your filing

Note

RealBooks produces the schedules and does the calculations, but it doesn’t file your taxes. Your CPA handles the actual filing and ensures compliance with state and local requirements.

Timing: When to Do What

When	What to Do
Monthly	Review and approve all imported transactions. Categorize any stragglers.
Quarterly	Run a quick P&L report per entity. Spot-check that everything looks right.
November	Run a preliminary tax report. Identify issues. Consider year-end tax planning moves.
January	Reconcile all December transactions. Finalize any remaining categorizations.
Early February	Generate final tax reports. Export or give your CPA access.
Before filing deadline	Review CPA’s draft return against your RealBooks reports. Flag any discrepancies.

Common Questions

What if my CPA uses different categories than RealBooks? RealBooks categories are aligned with IRS Schedule E line items. Most CPAs use the same structure. If your CPA has custom categories, the CSV export lets them remap as needed.

Can I regenerate reports after making corrections? Yes. Reports are generated from live data — fix the underlying transaction or property detail and regenerate. There’s no locked or finalized state.

Do I need all these forms? Most rental investors need Schedule E and Form 4562 every year. The others depend on your situation:

• Form 8582 if you have rental losses
• Schedule D + Form 8949 only if you sold a property
• Schedule F only if you have farm income

What about state taxes? RealBooks generates federal forms. State requirements vary — your CPA handles state filings using the same underlying data.

My CPA wants QuickBooks files. Can RealBooks export those? RealBooks doesn’t export QBX/QBO files directly, but the CSV export contains all the same data. Most CPAs can import CSV into their tax preparation software. If your CPA specifically needs QuickBooks format, reach out to hello@realbooks.io to discuss options.

What if I haven’t been tracking expenses all year? Upload your bank statements (CSV or PDF) from Settings > Import. RealBooks will import historical transactions and PennyAI will categorize them. It’s more work up front, but you’ll capture deductions you’d otherwise miss.