Simple answer: you pay 15% long term capital gains rate, assuming owned the home at least one year.
Depending on your total income, some of the gain may be taxed a 0%.
You can use this tool to do an estimate. https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/?s=1. Enter your regular income first to see the regular tax. Then add the sale to see the effect.
Enter the difference between the sale price and what you paid for it originally as a long term capital gain (LTCG). Depending on how much total income you have LTCG are partially taxed at 0%, 15%, 20% and/or 23.8%.
There is a partial exception to the two year rule if your move was due to an employment relocation or other "unforeseen circumstances". Other than that, there is no way to avoid the tax.
We have lived here for over 1yr (1.5) our total income would be about 80k, I'm sure I could increase 401k to get it lower if needed! I tried adding it as normal income to see the difference but kept using Google and getting different answer on what percent I'd pay in taxes. We are looking to make 60k on sale of home, after paying closing costs and realtor fees etc looking to still have about 40k.
80K income less 24K standard deduction = 56K taxable income. The 15% capital gain threshold is $78,950.
This means $22,950 (78,950 - 56,000) of the 60K gain will be taxed at 0%.
(60,000 - 22,950) x 15% = $5,558 will be your tax on the gain on the sale.
Yes, increasing your 401k contribution would reduce that.