You may not have to report the sale of your home if you qualify for the home sale exclusion (unless the sale was reported on a form 1099-S). According to IRS Pub. 523 - Selling Your Home, your sale qualifies for exclusion of $250,000 gain ($500,000 if married filing jointly) if all of the following requirements are met:
- You owned the home and used it as your main home during at least 2 of the last 5 years before the date of sale.
- You didn’t acquire the home through a like-kind exchange (also known as a 1031 exchange), during the past 5 years.
- You didn’t claim any exclusion for the sale of a home that occurred during a 2-year period ending on the date of the sale of the home, the gain from which you now want to exclude.
To go to the section of TurboTax dealing with the sale of your primary residence, please follow these steps:
- In the Search box at the top right of your screen, enter "sale of home" and press the Find key (the magnifying glass).
- Click on Jump to sale of home at the top of the Top Questions box.
- On the Sold a Home screen, note the information you'll need to answer and click Continue.
- Continue through the screens, answering the interview questions. [TurboTax will even ask questions that might qualify you for an exclusion of the gain, even though you lived in the home less than 2 years.]
- TurboTax will bring you back to the Home Sales Summary screen, where you can add another sale by clicking the Add Another Sale button. If you don't have another sale to enter, click Done.