Taxes on Profits from selling a house

[John Dutton 20251]

Do I have to pay taxes on the profit I made from selling my home? 

[MonikaK1 · Accepted solution]

It depends. If you sold your main home during the current tax year, TurboTax can determine if you need to report the sale on your tax return. Generally, profits of up to $250,000 (up to $500,000 on a joint tax return) don't need to be reported to the IRS. TurboTax can figure this out for you.

To enter the sale of a personal residence in TurboTax Online:

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

If your gain on the sale will be less than the applicable limit, and if it was never used for business or as a rental, and you didn't receive a Form 1099-S, you don't need to report the sale on your return at all. Not having to report the sale could save you from needing to upgrade your TurboTax product.

See this article for more information on determining the gain on the sale of your home.

[xmasbaby0]

If your gain was more than  $250,000 filing Single, or more than $500,000 filing Married Filing Jointly the sale must be reported on your tax return.  Whether you re-invested the gain in to another house is irrelevant.  If you  have a Form 1099-S go to Federal>Wages and Income>Less Common Income>Sale of Home (gain or loss)

If you owned and lived in the home as your primary residence for at least 2 of the last 5 years on the date of the sale, you do not have to report the home sale if the gain is less than $250K filing Single, or less than $500K filing Married Filing Jointly (and you both owned and lived in the home for at least 2 years).

• If you are using online TT, you need Premium software to report the 1099-S

NOTE:   If you have ever used the home as rental property or claimed a home office, you have more information to enter

[DaveF1006]

Just to elaborate what has already been mentioned, you may claim a home office expense if you used it, owned a business, and then used a portion of your home to conduct your business.  You cannot use it to conduct work at home if you are an employee according to IRS guidelines. 

If this was used as a rental at any time, there may be ordinary income that may be taxed in addition to the capital gains tax that might be owed due to depreciation recapture.  If this is the case with you, please respond back @DaveF1006  and I will explain to you how to report the sale.