Common questions about individual Schedule E in Lacerte

Below are instructions on entering rental and royalty income from the Schedule E in the Individual module of Lacerte.

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How do I enter rental or royalty income?

1. Go to Screen 18, Rental & Royalty Inc. (Sch. E).
2. Under the Rental and Royalty Income (Schedule E) section, enter the Description of the property.
3. Enter the address Information in:
   • Street address
   • City
   • State
   • ZIP code
   • Region / ZIP code / Country (if located in a foreign country)
     • The address is only required for rental real estate properties. For royalty properties, you should leave Schedule E, line 2 and the address portion of line 1 blank. Enter code 6 for royalty property.
4. Select the Type of property (Ctrl+T) from the dropdown menu.
   • Refer to the IRS Instructions for Schedule E for a definition of Self-Rental and Other.
   • If you choose Royalties, the address won't show on the Schedule E, per the IRS instructions.
   • If you don't choose a type of property and instead enter Other type of property, Lacerte will generate code 8 on Schedule E, per the form instructions.
5. Complete any other applicable fields in the General Information section.
   • Lacerte considers rentals as passive activities with active conduct of a trade or business. Check the box labeled Did not actively participate to indicate that a rental is non-passive with no active conduct.
6. Scroll down to the Income section and enter the Rents or royalties received.
   • The program will determine if the amount relates to rents or royalties based on the Type of property selected in step 4.
7. Scroll down to the Expenses section and enter any applicable expenses that pertain to this activity.
8. Scroll down to the Other Information section and complete any other applicable information about this activity.

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How do I enter fair rental days?

1. Go to Screen 18, Rental & Royalty Inc. (Sch. E).
2. Locate the Rental & Royalty Income (Schedule E) section.
3. Enter the days in the Number of days rented field.

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How do I enter personal use days?

1. Go to Screen 18, Rental & Royalty Inc. (Sch. E).
2. Scroll down to the Personal Use of Dwelling Unit (Including Vacation Home) section.
3. Enter the amount days in the Number of days personal use field.
   • Use this field for any personal use days, even if this wasn't a vacation home.
   • If this was a vacation home, refer to this article for more information.

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How does Lacerte calculate depreciation for Schedule E?

When you have multiple assets linked to the same Schedule E, the fastest way to review their depreciation is on the current year Federal Depreciation Schedule the program produces. 

Make sure that on Screen 18 you link assets to 3=Schedule E (rental) OR 11= Schedule E (vacation home). Refer to this article for more information.

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Force D-30 to fill out with income less than 12,000

Form D-30 is not required to filed if the amount on line 10 is less than 12,000.  However, the entire form is needed due to a refund of estimated tax payments.

In Screen 54.321 enter 1 in input field Form D-30: blank=when applicable, 1=force. This will generate the entire calculation of the D-30.

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