If you don't mind being on hold for a really long time, and pushing buttons that may never get you to a human, the IRS number is 1-800-TAX-1040 (800-829-1040). Good luck getting a human.
One IRS publication that does a "fairly" good job of covering the tax aspects of residential rental real estate is IRS Publication 527 at https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p527.pdf
Most questions relating to rentals I can answer. But keep in mind that laws differ state to state. I'm in FL which doesn't tax personal income. So I don't have to deal with state taxes on this. Whereas in a state such as Hawaii, you're guaranteed that you "WILL" Pay a state tax on every single penny of rental income. It's referred to as the GET tax, or General Excise Tax. Presently, the state tax rate for the GET is 4%. of the *GROSS* rental income. Property owners can add to that any county surcharges that may be imposed. Now you know why rents are so sky high in Hawaii.
I have found in my limited experience with legal professionals on this, that a lawyer that specializes in probate, wills and estates seem to be the most knowledgeable. I have a lawyer on retainer and probate, wills and estates is all he does. A fair number of his "clients" who pass away are business and rental property owners.
He's had to deal with evicting tenants for not paying rent when they thought they could just stop paying when the landlord passed away. Also, handles the transfer of ownership per the landlord's will, or per state law if there is no will.
For most such scenarios he's able to handle the taxes too. While he can help with tax planning he doesn't claim to be a tax expert and usually refers to other lawyers or CPA's that he knows is more knowledgeable on the tax aspects of a given situation.
I am a new landlord and lack experience
We all lacked experience when we started out. While we may have learned the ins and outs of remtal property management before committing to that first purchase, not all of us got educated on the tax front prior to diving in. Here's a synopsis of how it most commonly works. Especially if there's a mortgage on the property.
Understand that rental income is passive. Likewise rental expenses are passive. You can deduct your rental expenses "only" from the passive rental income, and that's it for the most part.
From year one, your rental property will operate at a loss "ON PAPER" at tax time, every year. When you add up the expenses of mortgage interest, property insurance and property taxes and add them to the depreciation you are required to take by law each year, those deductions alone will almost always exceed your total rental income for the tax year. Add to that the other rental expenses you're allowed to deduct (maintenance, repairs, etc.) and you're practically guaranteed to operate your rental business at a loss each and every year.
Your losses will commonly exceed your rental income each year. Once your deductible rental expenses get your taxable rental income to zero (and it will) that's it. You can't deduct any more. The excess loss just gets carried over to the next year where you can deduct it "if" you have the rental income to deduct it from. Most likely, you won't have the rental income to deduct it from.
So with each and every passing year your carry over losses will continue to grow. You can't "realize" those losses until the tax year you sell the property. Only then can you deduct your carry over rental losses from "other" ordinary income.
Additionally, in the tax year you sell you are required to recapture all depreciation taken on the property and pay taxes on it in that year of recapture. Depending on your AGI in the year you sell it, your recaptured depreciation will be taxed anywhere from 0% to a maximum of 25%. So even if your AGI puts you in a higher tax bracket the recaptured depreciation will be taxed at a maximum of 25%, assuming tax laws on this don't change in the future.
