Capital Gains on primary residence

[jerake]

I'm getting ready to sell my primary residence in Texas shortly and worried about tax implications for next year.  I'm moving to a new home downstate.  However, I'll only have lived in my current home for 18 months at time of sale/closing, not two years.

My realtor (who ran into this situation with another client) is telling me that capital gains is assessed on a sliding scale, and that while I'll have to pay capital gains, I will only have to pay based on 6 months (18 + 6 = 24 months) and that the tax should be minimal.  However, nothing I can find anywhere states anything about a sliding scale (edit:  I did find something about a prorated max exclusion but it seems to only apply in certain situations), only that if I've lived in the home for less than two years I have to pay short term capital gains  - right now it looks like the gain will be based on 267000 original sale prices - 325000 estimated sale price, after closing costs etc. will net about 35,000. 

Can anyone confirm the above regarding sliding scale is true? 

TIA, 

Tina

[MayaD]

Per IRS:

You may qualify for a partial exclusion of gain. 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.

Publication 523 (2021), Selling Your Home

[Bsch4477]

The realtor is referring to a partial capital gains exclusion. Read about it here:

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p523#en_US_2021_publink100073096

[jerake]

Thanks for this.  Seems I don't quality for the prorated exemption for any of the listed reasons.
One last question - is the capital gains tax applied after closing costs (net value of original sold price - new selling price), or is it on the gross gain?

E.g we are estimating about 35,000 net gain from the sale after closing costs/fees, is the tax applied on that amount?

[Bsch4477]

The tax is applied to your net gain. Remember that you can add any capital improvements you have made to your cost basis.