Cap gain tax? My wife and I own separate houses individually, one is primary and 1 is investment. file taxes jointly We lived less than 2 yrsin primary are we OK to sell?

[pvn-reddy63]

My wife and I own separate houses individually, one of them in primary residence and one of investment. We file taxes jointly We lived less than 2 years in primary residence that we bought. Now we want to sell both of these and buy a new house primary residence. The profit will be 100k or so which I am going to use towards new mortgage.. Is this subject to capital gain taxes? Please help

[Opus 17]

Any capital gains on the investment home are subject to capital gains tax.

Any capital gains on your main residence are subject to capital gains tax unless you qualify for the special exclusion.  If you qualify, you can exclude up to the first $250,000 of gain (or $500,000 if married filing jointly).  You must have owned the home at least 2 years, and lived in the home as your main home for at least 2 of the past 5 years (730 or more days, they do not have to be consecutive).  If the reason you are moving has to do with a unforeseen financial hardship as explained in publication 523, you may qualify for a partial exclusion.  If not, you owe the capital gains tax.  Review publication 523 here.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p523.pdf

[JulieS]

Yes, if you did not both own and live in the home for at least two years during the five years prior to the sale, you will have a taxable gain on the sale. There are some exceptions to this, for job re-assignment and military service. 

Assuming you owned the home for more than one year, your gain would be a long term capital gain.