Capital gains and the look back exemption

[Rrush]

I sold a house in November 2019 and took the exemption, rented and then bought another house in September 2020 and lived in it  and sold it in May of 2022. The reason we sold was to move 600 miles out of state to be near family. Do I qualify for an exclusion or partial exclusion since the last time it was used was 2019.

[Critter-3]

The TurboTax program will cover this partial exclusion in the Sale of Home interview -

• Click on Federal Taxes
• Click on Wages and Income
• Click on I'll choose what I work on
• Scroll down to Less Common Income
• On Sale of Home (gain or loss), click on the start or update button

In reference to gains on the sale of your home where you did not live or own the home for at least two years during the five years from the date of sale, a Partial Exclusion May Be Available  -  See IRS Publication 523 Selling Your Home page 4 - http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p523.pdf#page=4

[rjs]

The look-back is not your problem. The second sale, in 2022, was more than two years after the first sale in 2019. But there are other requirements for the exclusion besides the look-back. See IRS Publication 523, Selling Your Home, for all the requirements. Your problem is that you don't meet the ownership and residence requirements. You did not own and live in the second house for two years. And moving to be near family is not one of the situations that qualifies for a partial exclusion.

Publication 523, page 6, says "You can meet the requirements for a partial exclusion if the main reason for your home sale was a change in workplace location, a health issue, or an unforeseeable event." Your family being 600 miles away was not unforeseeable. In fact, the situation existed before you bought the new house. So you do not qualify for any exclusion at all.

[Mike9241]

the exemption can be used once every two years so that is not an issue.(05/22 is more than two years after 11/19)

you did not own and live in your current home for 2 years so you are not entitled to the full exclusion. thus we have to look at the primary reason for the sale to determine if you qualify for a partial exclusion. You have to qualify under one of the three conditions below.

1) job change - this doesn't seem to be the primary reason  for the sale

2) health - the primary reason for the sale is to obtain medical care (to facilitate diagnosis, mitigation, or treatment of disease, illness or injury of a qualified individual). qualified individual:  you, spouse, parent, grandparent, stepmother or father, child, grandchild, stepchild, adopted child, brother, sister. stepbrother or sister, half-brother or sister, mother or father-in-law, brother or sister-in-law, son or daughter-in-law, uncle aunt nephew niece, cousin . 

3) unforeseen circumstances - just moving to me near family would not seem to qualify.