Sale of Residence - Real Estate Tax Tips

You may qualify to exclude from your income all or part of any gain from the sale of your main home. Your main home is the one in which you live most of the time.

Ownership and Use Tests

To claim the exclusion, you must meet the ownership and use tests. This means that during the 5-year period ending on the date of the sale, you must have:

Owned the home for at least two years (the ownership test)
Lived in the home as your main home for at least two years (the use test)

Gain

If you have a gain from the sale of your main home, you may be able to exclude up to $250,000 of the gain from your income ($500,000 on a joint return in most cases).

If you can exclude all of the gain, you do not need to report the sale on your tax return. If you have gain that cannot be excluded, it is taxable. Report it on Schedule D (Form 1040)

Loss

You cannot deduct a loss from the sale of your main home.

Worksheets

Worksheets are included in Publication 523, Selling Your Home, to help you figure the:

Adjusted basis of the home you sold
Gain (or loss) on the sale
Gain that you can exclude
Reporting the Sale

Do not report the sale of your main home on your tax return unless you have a gain and at least part of it is taxable. Report any taxable gain on Schedule D (Form 1040).

More Than One Home

If you have more than one home, you can exclude gain only from the sale of your main home. You must pay tax on the gain from selling any other home. If you have two homes and live in both of them, your main home is ordinarily the one you live in most of the time.

Source: IRS Real Estate Tax Tips

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