You may be eligible for a partial capital gain exclusion when you sell your primary home and you have not lived in the home for at least two years in the 5 year period on the date of sale. The exclusion is calculated by the number of months you lived in the home, eg X/24 * exclusion.
For example if you owned and lived in the home for 20 months on the date of sale and you are filing as Married Filing Jointly the exclusion would be 20/24 * $500,000 = $416,667
Go to this IRS website for Publication 523, Selling Your Home, page 6 - https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p523.pdf#page=6
You can meet the requirements for a partial exclusion if the main reason for your home sale was a change in workplace location, a health issue, or an unforeseeable event.
Gain or Loss = Sales Price minus Sales Expenses minus Adjusted Basis (Purchase Price plus the cost of improvements prior to the sale)
