Why a decrease in federal due with sale of primary & rental property in same year?

[steve2649]

Hello,

I am running mock tax scenarios to help prepare for our married-joint 2024 filings as we sold our primary residence this year (owned 10+ years) and will be paying LTC gains on the profit.  We are also contemplating selling one of our long term rental properties this year and when I input projected sale ($200k) and profit ($100k) data, our "federal taxes due" amount drops by $10k.

My question is: how would our amount due decrease if there is a long term capital gain on the sale of the rental property?

Thank you TT Community.

[NCperson]

@steve2649 suggest printing out Sch D and reviewing it before and after you add the proposed sale of the rental property.  What do you have in passive losses? 

Further, on the sale of the primary home, I am assuming your capital gains exceeds $500,000, otherwise there should be no tax. 

[steve2649]

Thanks NCperson.  Yes, we exceeded the $500k on our primary.  I am looking at the original SchD and the one with the mock rental sale and there are no losses on either one- all gains.

[NCperson]

then do a side by side comparison of Form 1040 - before and after adding the rental property - something is changing with the AGI. 

[Mike9241]

if you had suspended passive losses on the rental real estate they are now allowed to the disposition.