You generally need to report the sale of your home on your tax return if you received a Form 1099-S or if you do not meet the requirements for excluding the gain on the sale of your home.
It depends on how long you owned and lived in the home before the sale and how much profit you made.
- If you owned and lived in the place for two of the five years before the sale, then up to $250,000 of profit is tax-free.
- If you are married and file a joint return, the tax-free amount doubles to $500,000.
The law lets you "exclude" this profit from your taxable income. (If you sold for a loss, though, you can't take a deduction for that loss.)
- You can use this exclusion every time you sell a primary residence, as long as you owned and lived in it for two of the five years leading up to the sale, and haven't claimed the exclusion on another home in the last two years.
- If your profit exceeds the $250,000 or $500,000 limit, the excess is reported as a capital gain on Schedule D.
-for more information on 1099-S follow this link-
What Is an IRS 1099 Form? - TurboTax Tax Tips & Videos
