Schedule E expense categories spreadsheet: sorting receipts into lines 5-19
Your expense dropdown should match the labels on Schedule E so the year-end totals need no re-sorting. Here are the 2025 labels as printed, 12 sample receipts sorted to them, and a check that nothing is missed.
Free: Rent Due & Late Fee Calculator, one Excel tab. Confirm your email and the file arrives right away, plus an occasional note (at most one a week) on running a small rental. Unsubscribe in one click. Privacy.
General information only, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Late-fee, deposit and notice rules vary by state, city and lease; check your own. Tax references describe US federal pages on irs.gov as of the date above.
The expense lines as printed on the 2025 form
Part I of the 2025 Schedule E (Form 1040) has one column per property (A, B, C). Rents go on line 3, "Rents received." The expense lines are labeled:
- Line 5: Advertising
- Line 6: Auto and travel (see instructions)
- Line 7: Cleaning and maintenance
- Line 8: Commissions
- Line 9: Insurance
- Line 10: Legal and other professional fees
- Line 11: Management fees
- Line 12: Mortgage interest paid to banks, etc. (see instructions)
- Line 13: Other interest
- Line 14: Repairs
- Line 15: Supplies
- Line 16: Taxes
- Line 17: Utilities
- Line 18: Depreciation expense or depletion
- Line 19: Other (list)
Line 20 is "Total expenses. Add lines 5 through 19." The IRS revises the form and instructions each year, so compare your dropdown with the current form every January.
Sorting 12 sample receipts
| # | Receipt | Amount | Line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Online listing fee for a vacant unit | $45.00 | 5 Advertising |
| 2 | Parking and tolls on a trip to the property | $14.50 | 6 Auto and travel |
| 3 | Cleaning crew between tenants | $180.00 | 7 Cleaning and maintenance |
| 4 | Leasing agent's fee for finding a tenant | $725.00 | 8 Commissions |
| 5 | Tax preparer's fee for the rental schedule | $150.00 | 10 Legal and other professional fees |
| 6 | Mortgage interest per the lender's statement | $512.40 | 12 Mortgage interest paid to banks, etc. |
| 7 | Fixing a broken door lock | $85.00 | 14 Repairs |
| 8 | Plumber fixing a leaking faucet | $210.00 | 14 Repairs |
| 9 | Hardware store: bulbs, batteries, cleaning supplies | $62.35 | 15 Supplies |
| 10 | County property tax installment | $1,310.00 | 16 Taxes |
| 11 | Water and sewer bill | $148.20 | 17 Utilities |
| 12 | Tenant screening report fee | $40.00 | 19 Other (list) |
Where the 2025 instructions help, and where they are silent
These notes come from the 2025 Schedule E instructions.
- Line 6. The instructions put parking fees and tolls on line 6, and say that with the standard mileage rate you multiply rental miles by 70 cents for 2025. The rate is set each year, so keep it in an input cell instead of inside formulas.
- Line 10. The instructions say to include fees for tax advice and for preparing tax forms related to your rental property. They also say not to deduct legal fees paid to defend or protect title, to recover property, or to develop or improve property; those are capitalized.
- Lines 12 and 13. Enter on line 12 interest paid to banks or other financial institutions. If the recipient was not a financial institution or sent no Form 1098, the instructions say to report the deductible mortgage interest on line 13.
- Line 14. Repairs and maintenance keep the property in ordinarily efficient operating condition; the instructions give fixing a broken lock or painting a room as examples. Adding substantial insulation or replacing an entire HVAC system are improvements, which generally must be capitalized and depreciated.
- Line 18. Depreciation is computed, not a receipt. The instructions point to the Form 4562 instructions for the amount.
- Line 19. "Enter on line 19 any ordinary and necessary expenses not listed on lines 5 through 18."
The instructions have no separate note for line 7. Because line 7 says "maintenance" and line 14 says "repairs," choose a rule (for example: routine cleaning, lawn and snow go to 7; fixing something broken goes to 14) and apply it every time. I put the screening fee on line 19 because no other line names it; a preparer may file it elsewhere, so ask.
The totals and the check
With the receipts in an Excel table named ExpenseLog, each line is one SUMIFS on the category label:
Line total =SUMIFS(ExpenseLog[Amount], ExpenseLog[Category], "Repairs")
Total expenses (line 20) = sum of the 15 line totals
Check =SUM(ExpenseLog[Amount]) - Total expenses
Repairs: 85.00 + 210.00 = 295.00
All 12 receipts = 3,482.45
Check: 3,482.45 - 3,482.45 = 0.00SUMIFS silently skips a row whose category is blank or misspelled, which is why the check matters: a non-zero result means a receipt did not land on any line. Use a data-validation dropdown for the category column so labels cannot drift.
What this does not cover
This is not tax advice, and the categories are the labels on the form, not a ruling on what is deductible for you. It does not build a depreciation schedule, apply passive-loss rules, or handle state returns. Personal use of a property, expenses shared with your own home, and the repair-versus-improvement decision all need a qualified preparer. Each property needs its own column on the form, so keep a property field in the log.
Sources
More landlord guides
- Security deposit ledger template for Excel: columns and a reconciliation check
- Rental property vacancy rate spreadsheet: physical vs economic vacancy
- Rental property income and expense spreadsheet: a 12-month duplex log
- Rent roll template for Excel: what a small landlord's rent roll needs
- Rent payment tracker spreadsheet: a late-status formula
- Prorated rent formula in Excel for a mid-month move-in
- Lease expiration tracker spreadsheet with a rent increase preview
- Late fee calculator in Excel: a formula with a grace period
- Duplex profit and loss per unit: splitting shared costs and finding NOI
Already built
The Landlord Rent & Expense Tracker gives every row on the Expenses tab a Schedule E category dropdown, with a repair or improvement flag and a receipt reference. The Schedule E tab then totals lines 5-19 per property with SUMIFS, shows line 20 Total expenses and line 21 Income or loss, and includes a reconciliation check. Depreciation is an input cell, not a schedule, and the kit gives no tax advice.