Rental income on Schedule E is passive income. You don't pay self-employment tax. This is good if you have another W-2 job paying social security and medicare, but for full time landlord, it might be helpful to pay 40 quarters of self-employment tax to qualify for social security and medicare.
With Company owning the rental property and taking the rent, the company pays the owner a salary, that salary is earned income and you can pay self-employment tax and eventually qualify for social security and medicare.
How much salary is subject to self-employment tax depends on the company strucutre, in a passthrough all the income is subject to self-employment; if the company is a S-Corp, the owner can determine how much is salary and how much is company reserve.
