Maybe I'm misreading your post, but the $25,000 is not an 'extra' deduction that you get. If your passive rental has a loss, you can deduct UP TO $25,000 of that loss if you qualify. So you have a $8,000 loss, so you can deduct $8,000 against your nonpassive income. If your rental had a $30,000 loss, you could only deduct $25,000 and the rest would be carried forward.
You can not elect to not take it with the intent to carry it forward.
