My friend says her rental house is hurting her taxes not helping

[Christine Myers]

I’m worried about what my friend said. They have a rental house with good rental income, but she is looking to get rid of it because its not helping on taxes. Her and her husband make over 150K a year and she says after 150k you cannot write off expenses. 

I started investing this year because I love houses, I love the real estate business, but i also hoped it would help me get back more tax dollars..am I misguided?

[Natalie Kolodij]

Rentals are passive income. 

You are not allowed to use passive losses (rentals) against active income (w2s, self employment ect) 

The IRS has a small taxpayer exclusion where they allow you to do so if you make under $150k. You can take up to $25k of losses against your regular income. 

Since their income is beyond that limit- their losses will carry forward until they have passive income, or until they sell the rental (all previous losses become available in the year it's sold).