Buying a place with a partner

[Andrew Christopher]

I'm looking to purchase a rental property with another person. I have spoken with lawyers, mortgage brokers, real estate brokers and accountants and seem to get more and more confused after each conversation. Basically the way I see it is we (Kevin and I) are worried about two issues 1.) The down payment and 2.) reporting the tax benefits at the end of the year. 

With regard to the down pmt - both of us have the money required but don't know how to get the loan for the remaining 75% - if one of us transfers money to the other person (and that person takes out the mortgage) how does the person thats not on the mortgage take advantage of the tax benefits at the end of the year when they file their taxes? and would there be some gift tax for the person that receives the loan? If we set up an LLC or LLP we likely wont get a loan as we have no credit or business history with this new llc - but this would make ownership cleaner and easier to report.

Any advice would be appreciated - apologize for the lengthy post 

Andrew