sold land in 2019, bought home 2019, then sold prime residence 2020, need to sell 2019 home in 2021

[DianeW777 · Accepted solution]

The land sale would have occurred in 2019 and will not affect the 2020return. The primary residence that was sold in 2020 will be reported on the 2020 income tax return.

If you sold your primary personal residence and you lived in and owned the home for at least two years in the five year period on the date of sale, you will be able to exclude the gain if your gain is less then the exclusion amounts of $250,000 if filing Single or $500,000 if filing Married Filing Jointly (and both lived in and owned the home for two years).  

A gain greater then the exclusion amounts would result in taxable gain.  You may have received a Form 1099-S for the sale either with a gain or a loss, the sale has to be reported.  You will need the online TurboTax Premier or Self-Employed edition to report the sale if you are using the online editions.   

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

Or enter sale of home in the Search box (upper right)  >  Press Enter >  Click on Jump to link

You can defer gain on only one primary residence in a two year period. If you have more than one home, you can exclude gain only from the sale of your main home. You must pay tax on the gain from selling any other home. If you have two homes and live in both of them, your main home is ordinarily the one you live in most of the time.

The home your bought in 2019 and need to sell in 2021 will have to be reported and the gain may be fully taxable. Use the following link for more information. Sale of Residence

[davenpoc]

Another question..........what I stated in my first question still stands...however, I had bought another home because I was selling the prime residence.  I bought that in August 2019, began living in the home October 2019.  When can I sell the second home to avoid paying taxes on any capital gain.  The primary home that was  sold in 2020 was sold for less than $250K so there was no exclusion taken on this home on my 2020 taxes.  

[ReneeM7122]

You must to have lived in the second home for at least 2 out of the last 5 years before you sell it. For married couples filing jointly, both of you must meet the residency requirement to qualify for an exclusion.

Here is a TurboTax article about tax aspects of home ownership.