Updated October 18, 2026. Quick answer: Schedule C lists mortgages and notes payable to the decedent, contracts the decedent made to sell land, and cash. The items go in a fixed order, and cash in banks is listed account by account. The records are the loan documents and the financial organizations’ statements.
What goes on Schedule C
“Complete Schedule C (Form 706) and file it with your return if the total gross estate contains any” of three things: mortgages, notes, or cash. The list is “Mortgages and notes payable to the decedent at the time of death” and “Cash the decedent had at the date of death.”
Only assets the decedent owned belong here. The instructions say “Do not list mortgages and notes payable by the decedent on Schedule C (Form 706).”
Every schedule opens with the same caution. “If any assets to which the special rule of Regulations section 20.2010-2(a)(7)(ii) applies are reported on this schedule, do not enter any value in the last three columns.” It then points the reader to the instructions for Part V, item 10, which explain how to estimate and report the value of those assets.
The reporting order
“List the items on Schedule C (Form 706) in the following order.” The order is “Mortgages”, “Promissory notes”, “Contracts by decedent to sell land”, “Cash in possession”, and “Cash in banks, savings and loan associations, and other types of financial organizations”.
What to write for each kind of item
For mortgages the instructions ask for the “Face value”, the “Unpaid balance”, the “Date of mortgage”, the “Name of maker”, the “Property mortgaged”, the “Date of maturity”, and the “Interest rate”. For promissory notes the instruction is “list in the same way as mortgages.”
For a contract by the decedent to sell land, the instructions ask for the “Name of purchaser”, the “Contract date”, the “Property description”, the “Sale price”, and the “Unpaid balance of principal”.
For cash on hand, “list such cash separately from bank deposits.” For accounts in financial organizations, the instructions ask for the “Name and address of each financial organization”, the “Amount in each account”, the “Serial or account number”, the “Nature of account”, and the “Unpaid interest accrued from date of last interest payment to the date of death”.
Where the number comes from
The numbers come from the loan papers for mortgages and notes and from the institutions’ statements for cash. The instructions add “If you obtain statements from the financial organizations, keep them for IRS inspection.” Property that fits no schedule is covered on the Schedule F page. Related terms are on the estate planning checklist and the estate planning glossary.
Where it goes next
Each schedule feeds one item of Part V, the recapitulation, on the form. The form’s caption for this schedule reads “Total mortgage, notes, and cash. Schedule C, line 4”. The Part V instructions list which schedules to attach: “Schedules A, B, and C, of Form 706, if the gross estate includes any (1) real estate, (2) stocks and bonds, or (3) mortgages, notes, and cash, respectively.” The same instructions say “If the gross estate does not contain any assets of the type specified by a given item, enter zero for that item.” They add “Entering zero for any of items 1 through 9 is a statement by the executor, made under penalties of perjury, that the gross estate does not contain any includible assets covered by that item.”
For the alternate value column, the Part V instructions say not to enter amounts there “unless you elected alternate valuation on Part III, line 1.” That election is explained on the Part III elections page and the alternate valuation date page, and the recapitulation is covered on the Parts 4 and 5 page. The return itself is explained on the Form 706 page.
Edition and line numbers
This page reads the Form 706 revision dated August 2025 and the Instructions for Form 706 revision dated July 2026. They are the current files irs.gov served on 2026-10-18, byte-identical to the archived copies used here. The instructions state “For decedents dying after December 31, 2025.” The form itself says “To be filed for decedents dying after December 31, 2024.” Check the revision date printed on your Form 706 and the instruction edition for the year of death, and use the line numbers on that revision.
Common mistakes
- Listing amounts the decedent owed. The instruction is “Do not list mortgages and notes payable by the decedent on Schedule C (Form 706).”
- Mixing cash on hand with bank deposits. The instructions say “list such cash separately from bank deposits.”
- Skipping the interest earned on accounts. The instructions ask for “Unpaid interest accrued from date of last interest payment to the date of death”.
Related: Form 706, estate planning checklist, and estate planning glossary.
Sources
- Instructions for Form 706 (Rev. July 2026): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i706.pdf
- Form 706 (Rev. August 2025), United States Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f706.pdf
Read from the IRS documents linked above on October 18, 2026. General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and a preparer, the account provider or the IRS is the right place to confirm anything consequential.