JV Agreement and Income/Expense Sharing, specifically Depreciation

[Pat Lulewicz]

Before the keyboard warriors jump in, please understand that I am in between Tax Advisors/Preparers so this is as much of a short-term need to get an answer, as well as a prelim interview Q as I source my new Advisor/Preparer. I am a former CPA as well, but this is a very niche IRS Code/Case question that I'd prefer to have an expert provide their expertise on, especially if there is evidence/experience with it.

I am purchasing a property in NC under my LLC as a rental. For simplicity, the title/deed and lending/loan will be under my LLC only. I have a partner that wants to contribute financially towards the downpayment however, neither they nor their LLC would be on title or loan. The goal is to split the income and expenses including, and specifically, depreciation so that we can each claim our share on our personal tax returns under Schedule E.

Is this as simple as drawing up a JV Agreement between our 2 LLCs with the understanding of how the income and expenses, including depreciation, will be split, and including our share on our personal tax returns? Is there additional documentation/forms needed to satisfy the documentation for the IRS? A K-1 obviously isn't the answer, but a 1099 doesn't seem like it would cover all the line items. Is it as simple as making sure our individual Schedule E's agree back to the Income Statement/accounting for that property?

If the JV Agreement is the simple solution that I'm overthinking here, does anything change if the upfront financial investment (downpayment) is not 50/50 - say its 25/75 - however, we do split the income/expenses 50/50? Is the main thing just to get crystal clear in the JV Agreement language and take our shares on our Schedule E's?