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kieuloanluc
Returning Member

I rented a house for 5 years. I then took it back to live as primary resident for 2 years. When I sell it, do I have to pay tax for capital gain? And do I pay tax on claimed depreciation during renting period?

 
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7 Replies

I rented a house for 5 years. I then took it back to live as primary resident for 2 years. When I sell it, do I have to pay tax for capital gain? And do I pay tax on claimed depreciation during renting period?

Yes and yes.

You are in a complicated situation because a few years ago, Congress changed the way the capital gain exclusion is calculated when your personal home is also a former rental.

Let's start with the assumption that the house increased in value $70,000 over those 7 years of ownership, and that during the 5 years of rental you claimed $20,000 of depreciation.

First, you will owe recapture tax of 25% on the depreciation.

Then, your gains is $70,000.  The period of time that you rented the home is "non-qualified" for purposes of the exclusion.  If that is 5/7th of your total ownership, then 5/7th of the gain, or $50,000, is taxable long term gain.  The remaining 2/7th of gain is "qualified" because you lived there, so if you meet all the other qualifications to exclude gain, that 2/7ths or $20,000 of gain is excluded from tax. 

The longer you stay there, the higher the exclusion goes.  If you sell after 7-1/2 years (90 months) then 60/90ths is non-qualified and 30/90ths is qualified, which is slightly better than 24/84ths. 

If you lived in the home before turning it to a rental, that would also be qualified use, so that makes more of your gain eligible for the exclusion.  Turbotax will ask things like the date you bought it, the dates you lived as a rental or personal residence.  The exclusion is actually calculated on days, not years or months, so you will need that info handy.  (For example, owned for 2735 days, used as a rental for 1825 days, etc.)

Your first strategy is to minimize your gain as much as possible by accounting for every possible adjustment to your cost basis (closing costs, permanent improvements, etc.).  

The issue of "non-qualified use" is handled correctly by Turbotax but it is not well described in IRS documents.  It's in the tax law and IRS regulation, but publication 523 on selling your house doesn't mention it at all, and publication 17 calls is "non-residential use" which is not quite correct.

Hal_Al
Level 15

I rented a house for 5 years. I then took it back to live as primary resident for 2 years. When I sell it, do I have to pay tax for capital gain? And do I pay tax on claimed depreciation during renting period?

One clarification:  "recapture"  of  the depreciation is taxed at your ordinary marginal tax rate (not capital gains rates), but at not more than 25%.*
Although TurboTax (TT) can handle this situation, you should consider having your  taxes done professionally.

*Although taxed at ordinary income rates, but 25% maximum, depreciation recapture is still considered a capital gain and can be offset by other capital losses.
kieuloanluc
Returning Member

I rented a house for 5 years. I then took it back to live as primary resident for 2 years. When I sell it, do I have to pay tax for capital gain? And do I pay tax on claimed depreciation during renting period?

Thank you so much for the explanation
missfnv
New Member

I rented a house for 5 years. I then took it back to live as primary resident for 2 years. When I sell it, do I have to pay tax for capital gain? And do I pay tax on claimed depreciation during renting period?

house used as my primary residence from 2009-2014. My parents who lived with me was having hard time to go up and down stairs ( all bedrooms are on second floor), they moved out to one story home. Even the mortgage is under my name, I had a hard time to keep the home by myself. I used the home to get equity line to buy a condo and had the home for rent from 2004-2018. So I lived only 1 year as my residence out of the last 5 years. Do I qualify for partial exemption due to my parent condition that I have no choice but put the home for rent?? If not, what exemption can I claim in my case?
missfnv
New Member

I rented a house for 5 years. I then took it back to live as primary resident for 2 years. When I sell it, do I have to pay tax for capital gain? And do I pay tax on claimed depreciation during renting period?

house used as my primary residence from 2009-2014. My parents who lived with me was having hard time to go up and down stairs ( all bedrooms are on second floor), they moved out to one story home. Even the mortgage is under my name, I had a hard time to keep the home by myself. I used the home to get equity line to buy a condo and had the home for rent from 2004-2018. So I lived only 1 year as my residence out of the last 5 years. Do I qualify for partial exemption due to my parent condition that I have no choice but put the home for rent?? If not, what exemption can I claim in my case?
Hal_Al
Level 15

I rented a house for 5 years. I then took it back to live as primary resident for 2 years. When I sell it, do I have to pay tax for capital gain? And do I pay tax on claimed depreciation during renting period?

Probably not. Although the reasons your describe account for the move,  it doesn't appear to explain the delay in selling.

 An exception is allowed if the move was for employment or health reasons or "unforeseen circumstances".

However, "A  partial home sale tax exclusion is ordinarily limited to the percentage of the two years up to the date of the sale that you owned and occupied the home as your principal residence" (1st reference below).

References:
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/the-partial-home-sale-tax-exclusion-irs-approved-unforeseen-c...>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/121">https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/121</a>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/qualifying-the-home-sale-exclusion-without-living-in-the-home...>

I rented a house for 5 years. I then took it back to live as primary resident for 2 years. When I sell it, do I have to pay tax for capital gain? And do I pay tax on claimed depreciation during renting period?

No exception that I can see.  The exception applies when you have to move within the first two years of ownership.  You already qualify under the two year ownership rule, your problem is with the 5 year rule, which basically means you have to sell within 3 years of moving out.  You could have sold within the that time frame; the medical reasons had nothing to do with why you didn't sell.

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