@dazimi wrote:
If an owner-occupied house is sold less than 24 months after purchase, can it be considered "home owner-occupied" for IRS tax purposes?
What tax purpose are you referring to? Where do you see the term "home owner-occupied" in any information or instructions from the IRS?
If you are talking about the exclusion of gain from the sale of your main home, if you sell the home less than 24 months after buying it you do not meet the ownership requirement for the exclusion of gain. To exclude the gain you have to have owned the home for at least 24 months out of the last 5 years leading up to the date of sale. Being "owner occupied" does not change the fact that you did not own the home for 24 months. You might qualify for a partial exclusion of gain if the main reason that you sold your home was a change in workplace location, a health issue, or an unforeseeable event. Otherwise you do not qualify for any exclusion of gain.
There are other requirements for the exclusion of gain besides the ownership requirement, but if you do not meet the ownership requirement, none of the other requirements matter.
See IRS Publication 523, Selling Your Home, for all the details of the exclusion, and other information related to selling your home.
If you are talking about selling a house other than your main home, there is no exclusion of gain under any circumstances. How the sale is taxed depends on what you did with the house, or how you used it, while you owned it. Did you rent it out, use it as a second home or vacation home, fix it up and flip it, or something else?
