Your mortgage does not enter into the sale of a home. If you lived in the home for a sufficient time, then you can exclude a portion of the gain. Your mortgage interest is entered on Schedule A.

If you meet the qualifications to use the exclusion, any gain over that amount is a capital gain. The exclusions are $250,000 for single, and $500,000 for married filing jointly. See the rules below.

Does Your Home Sale Qualify for Maximum Exclusion

The tax code recognizes the importance of home ownership by providing certain tax breaks when you sell your home. To qualify for these breaks, your home must meet the Eligibility Test .

How your sale qualifies.   Your sale qualifies for exclusion of $250,000 gain ($500,000 if married filing jointly) if all of the following requirements are met.

• You owned the home and used it as your main home during at least 2 of the last 5 years before the date of sale.
• You didn’t acquire the home through a like-kind exchange (also known as a 1031 exchange), during the past 5 years.
• You didn’t claim any exclusion for the sale of a home that occurred during a 2-year period ending on the date of the sale of the home, the gain from which you now want to exclude.

What you did with the money from the house you sold is irrelevant.  You do not enter it into your tax return.  The last year it mattered whether you re-invested money from the sale of a house into buying another house was 1997.

Go to Federal> Deductions and Credits> Your Home to enter mortgage interest, property taxes, private mortgage insurance (PMI) and loan origination fees (“points”) that you paid in 2019.  You should have a 1098 from your mortgage lender that shows this information.  Lenders send these in January/early February.

Did you receive a 1009S for the house you sold?

If your gain was more than  $250,000 filing Single, or more than $500,000 filing Married Filing Jointly the sale must be reported on your tax return.  Whether you re-invested the gain in to another house is irrelevant.  If you  have a Form 1099-S go to Federal>Wages and Income>Less Common Income>Sale of Home (gain or loss)

If you owned and lived in the home as your primary residence for at least 2 of the last 5 years on the date of the sale, you do not have to report the home sale if the gain is less than $250K filing Single, or less than $500K filing Married Filing Jointly (and you both owned and lived in the home for at least 2 years).

• If you are using online TT, you need Premier or Self-Employed software to report the 1099-S