If you are a homeowner, you will be entitled to tax breaks when you sell your home. It is possible to profit up to $250,000 if you file your taxes singly. If you file jointly, you could get $500,000. To make things even nicer, you will owe nothing to the IRS. There are a few caveats that are involved. You must have been the owner of the property and must have used that same property as your primary residence for at least 2 of the 5 years preceding the sale of the home. While this seems fair, what happened if you sold your home after only owning it for two years? In 2002, the IRS released new regulations that changed the original rules.
If you are in the situation of owning and residing in the home for less than 2 years, you can avoid the tax by claiming a reduced gain exclusion. This is fairly easy to qualify for. If you do qualify, the amount will most likely be large enough to protect the entire gain, even though the sale was made prematurely. If you are eligible, the amount would equal the $250,000 or $500,000 times a fraction. The numerator of the fraction would be the period of time that you owned and used the home and the denominator would be the two years that is required. For example, if you and your spouse owned and resided in your home for 22 months, the reduced exclusion would be $500,000 multiplied by 22 months over 24 months, which would equal $458,333. The reduced exclusion applies when the premature sale is a result of a change in employment, health issues or unforeseen circumstances.
If the sale is premature due to a change of employment, you must state that this was the reason. This will make you eligible for the exclusion. To utilize this reason, you must have had to relocate more than 50 miles away from the home that was sold. There can be exceptions to this rule. It would depend on the circumstances. For example, if you got a new job working in an emergency room, and the job required you to live closer to the hospital; you may still qualify for the exclusion even though the move was less than 50 miles away.
If you prematurely sell the home due to health reasons, there are requirements that must be met. The move must be done in order to obtain medical care or to provide or facilitate the cure or treatment of a disease. The qualified individual could include yourself, your spouse or any other person that resided in the home that was sold. If a doctor recommends a change of residence due to the health status of the qualified individual, the exclusion will be immediately granted.
Unforeseen circumstances can also be a reason for a premature sale. There are many things that could fall under this category, including the death of a qualified individual, the eligibility for unemployment compensation, divorce or legal separation, multiple birth pregnancy, man-made disaster or if the residence is sold after it was seized by a government agency. For the cases of unforeseen circumstances, the qualified individual could be the owner, the co-owner or any other individual that used the property as a primary residence.
Additional tax treatments are available if you use your home for business or rental property. The entire home, including the rental and business areas will qualify for the gain exclusion. The only difference in this case is that you must pay a tax on the gain if it was attributable to depreciation deductions that had been claimed after May of 1997. Keep in mind that the business or rental property must be located within the primary residence.
As long as you meet the eligibility requirements, you can earn considerable tax savings when you sell your home. Selling prematurely should be avoided if at all possible, but if a situation does arise, you will not lose as much as you think.
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