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Free guides for landlords

Practical, plain-English guides to rental bookkeeping, tax forms, deposits and tenant screening in the US and Canada. Tax figures are checked against IRS, CRA and Revenu Québec sources and cited in each guide.

How to do bookkeeping for a rental property (US, Schedule E)

A step-by-step bookkeeping system for US landlords: cash method, Schedule E line categories, repairs vs improvements, depreciation, records and tax-time checks, with IRS sources.

Canadian rental income: how to fill out Form T776

How Canadian landlords fill out CRA Form T776: gross rents, expense lines 8521 to 9270, personal portion, co-owners, line 9369, CCA and where it goes on your return. Quebec TP-128 notes.

Rental property tax deductions checklist (US and Canada)

Checklist of rental property expenses landlords commonly deduct, with the matching Schedule E line (US) or T776 line (Canada), plus what you can't deduct. IRS and CRA sources.

How to track security deposits

What to record for every security deposit, how deposit rules differ (Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, US states), how deposits are taxed, and a move-out workflow.

Tenant screening checklist

A step-by-step tenant screening checklist: written criteria, fair housing and human rights rules, ID, income, references, credit checks, adverse action notices. US, Ontario and Quebec sources.

Put the guides into practice

Every guide pairs with a ready-made spreadsheet: US Schedule E bookkeeping, Canadian T776 bookkeeping, the maintenance & deposit log and the tenant screening & lease tracker. Or get all six in one bundle and save about 41%.

Get the spreadsheets – US bundleGet the spreadsheets – Canadian bundle

Want to run the numbers? Try the free landlord calculators.

Our guides are general information, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Please confirm your situation with a qualified professional.