Capital gains on 2 home sales last year

[lll354]

My husband and I were married in 2020 and both had seperate homes when we married. We have been living in my home since marriage but my husband still had his home. It sat empty. Last year we sold both homes and put the money from them to purchase a new home. Do we have to pay capital gains on one of them or are we exempt because we made less than $250, 000 on each? 

[Vanessa A]

If he moved into your home in 2020, his home may not qualify for the home sale exclusion, depending on when he moved in with you and when the house was sold. The house would have had to be sold within 3 years of him moving out or, he would not have lived in the house for 2 out of the last 5 years. In order to claim the exclusion, you must have lived in the home for 2 out of the last 5 years.  

If he DID live in the house for 2 out of the last 5 years, then yes, you would both be able to claim the exclusion on your own homes.  When walking through the sale of home questions, just be sure to mark the correct person that owned the home.  Then TurboTax will do a separate worksheet for each of you for the sale of the home that you owned individually. 

[lll354]

If we file married filing seperatly can we work around paying taxes on them? 

[RobertB4444]

No.  If you file married filing separately then one of you will pay a lot of taxes and the other won't.  Or, if you live in a community property state, you'll just split everything down the middle anyway.

@lll354