It depends. If you qualify for the home sale exclusion follow the steps below.
The rules of capital gain exclusion for the sale of your main home must occur within five years in your situation. It's necessary to show the time that it was your main home. Below is a summary of the requirements for exclusion of gain on your main home sale.
Exclusion amount: If you meet certain conditions, you may exclude the first $250,000 of gain from the sale of your home from your income and avoid paying taxes on it. The exclusion is increased to $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly.
Key Eligibility Requirements: IRS Publication 523
- Ownership: If you owned the home for at least 24 months (2 years) out of the last 5 years leading up to the date of sale (date of the closing), you meet the ownership requirement. For a married couple filing jointly, only one spouse has to meet the ownership requirement.
- Use: If you owned the home and used it as your residence for at least 24 months of the previous 5 years, you meet the residence requirement. The 24 months of residence can fall anywhere within the 5-year period, and it doesn't have to be a single block of time. All that is required is a total of 24 months (730 days) of residence during the 5-year period. Unlike the ownership requirement, each spouse must meet the residence requirement individually for a married couple filing jointly to get the full exclusion.
- Look Back Period: If you didn't sell another home during the 2-year period before the date of sale (or, if you did sell another home during this period, but didn't take an exclusion of the gain earned from it), you meet the look-back requirement. You may take the exclusion only once during a 2-year period.
- Exceptions - May not apply to you and can be reviewed at the link above.
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