@aesherrell wrote:
Out of curiosity, your response is different from the expert. The expert said, “you do get to take advantage of the full $500,000 exclusion when both the sale and the marriage occur in the same year, even if the wedding took place on the last day of the year.”
It's a bit of a weird situation. Conventionally, you file a return based on your status as of December 31; if married on that date you file as if you were married all year. For the home sale, IRS publication 523 says that only one spouse must meet the ownership requirement but both spouses must meet the residency requirement. But it's not clear if that means "at the time of the sale" or "at the time of filing the return."
If your gain is less than $250,000 it won't matter. If your gain will be more than $250,000 and you think you might want to close on the sale before the wedding date, you may want to get an opinion from a professional tax accountant in your area.
