That is because you only have to have lived in the house for 2 of the last 5 years to be able to claim the home gain exclusion.
Please note - You do not need to enter or report the sale of your
primary residence if:
- You never used your primary
residence as a rental or took home office deduction
- You have a loss on the sale
of your home (Personal capital losses are not reported on your tax return)
- You did not receive a Form
1099-S and
- You meet the home gain
exclusion (see below)
You can take the gain exclusion as
long as you considered the home your "primary residence" for 2 of the
last 5 years. If you have a capital
gain from the sale of your main home, you may qualify to exclude up to $250,000
of that gain from your income. You may qualify to exclude up to $500,000 of
that gain if you file a joint return with your spouse. See Sale of Your Home for more information on the exclusion.
If you still need to enter your sale of your
primary residence (which may require an upgrade in TurboTax), please follow
these steps: log into your tax return (for TurboTax Online
sign-in, click Here and
click on "Take me to my return") type "sale of home" in the search bar then select "jump to sale of home". TurboTax will guide you in entering this
information.
You
will need:
- The date you sold your home
and the selling price (from your closing statement)
- The date you bought your home
and the purchase price (from your closing statement)
- The cost of any major
improvements you made, so we can deduct them for you
- Form 1099-C if you sold your
home at a loss (short sale)
Just
remember to check the box to have your home sale reported on your tax return
but ONLY if you receive a 1099-S
