How to Report Farm Rents on a Schedule E

Schedule E is used to report only certain types of farm rent. Standard farm rental income is reported on Schedule F, not Schedule E. Farmers or landowners who rent out part of their land but do not materially participate in the farming fill out Schedule E. Before you begin to file, have all tax paperwork ready.

List the name and address of your farm where the Schedule E form asks you for the type and address of your rental real estate. Write "farm" as the type.

Write down the full dollar amounts of any rents and royalties received on your property on lines 3 and 4.

Fill out lines 5 to 18 on expenses, using whole dollar amounts. Schedule E asks what your advertising, insurance, legal and maintenance expenses were for that fiscal year. You should be able to determine these costs from receipts for repairs, legal bills and insurance statements. For some areas (such as advertising) you may have to make an estimate.

Add up your expenses and list the whole dollar amount on line 19.

Use the depreciation formula given to calculate your property's depreciation. Write the amount on line 20.

Combine your expenses and depreciation amounts to get the total expenses; write this number on line 21.

Enter in your total income on line 22. This could be a negative number if you lost rental income.

Subtract your expenses or losses from your income to get the "total rental real estate and royalty income or (loss)." Enter this number on line 26. You have now successfully completed your farm rent reporting for Schedule E.