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tax consequences of selling house and not buying replacement


TBrase

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Bought a 5th wheel and now onto the next issue... selling our house.

 

My wife is concerned that if we sell our house, the IRS expects us to buy a replacement in 3 years. If we don't, there may be tax consequences.

 

Any of you full timers that have sold a house experienced this?

 

 

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"My wife is concerned that if we sell our house, the IRS expects us to buy a replacement in 3 years. If we don't, there may be tax consequences."

 

That all changed in the tax reform act of 1997. You are no longer required to purchase a replacement house, you are no longer limited to once in a lifetime home sale exemption. In fact there is no requirement or limitation on what you do with the proceeds, and you can repeat the home sale tax emption as many times as you qualify.

The gain from the sale of your primary home are tax exempt, up to $500,000 (married)/$250,000(single), provided: you own the home and it was your primary residence for at least 2 of the last 5 yrs, and you haven't already used the primary home sale exemption within the last 2 yrs. read IRS Publication 523

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Wow! We moved here in 94 and got hammered during a downsize. I still remember writing a very paoinful check that year. Hadn't looked into how much we'd have to pay selling this one next year, so this is awesome news for us! Thanks to the OP and the replies. This is great news!

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We are facing the same scenario. We sold our house yesterday. We bought the 5th wheel last month. Our tax man told me to save all receipts we used for upgrades to the house. We will write that off against the very small profit. We'll be lucky to break even. He also wants to use the sales tax on our 5th wheel. We'll register to domicile in South Dakota. That might help State taxes but not the Feds.

Good luck.

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Ugh, isn't the one time sale exemption something you are only eligible for after age 55 (?) and it has to be your primary residence and you had to live in it for at least the last 2 years prior to the date of sale?

From IRS publication 523........... The age limit was removed some time ago.

 

How your sale qualifies.
Your sale qualifies for exclu-
sion of $250,000 gain ($500,000 if married filing jointly) if
the following is true:
You owned the home and used it as your main home
during at least 2 of the last 5 years before the date of
sale.
You did not acquire the home through a like-kind ex-
change (also known as a 1031 exchange), during the
past 5 years.
You did not claim any exclusion for the sale of a home
that occurred during a 2-year period ending on the

date of the sale of the home, the gain from which you
now want to exclude.
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I am only 43 years old. I'm have sold three houses so far in my life, all of which were my primary residences for at least two years. I have never had to pay capital gains on any of those sales.

Were you rolling over the gain from the sold house into a new house that you bought? This is where the 2 year rule also applied--you had to own the home for 2 years and you had to buy another with in 2 years of the sale date.

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Kirk, are you saying there is no longer an age restriction on the one time capital gains exclusion?

 

 

Yes, that is what he is saying. He even gave a link to the IRS on this very subject in message #7.

 

Really people, times change and that is one of the reasons that using a program like Turbo Tax is a good idea if you haven't dealt with selling a house or receiving capital gains in a few years. Let the program walk you through the process and don't think that what you did 20 years ago is still applicable.

 

Barb

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Were you rolling over the gain from the sold house into a new house that you bought? This is where the 2 year rule also applied--you had to own the home for 2 years and you had to buy another with in 2 years of the sale date.

 

While you do have to have owned the house for two years out of the last five years (and it has to have been your principal residence), you DO NOT have to purchase another house within two years of the date of sale.

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Were you rolling over the gain from the sold house into a new house that you bought? This is where the 2 year rule also applied--you had to own the home for 2 years and you had to buy another with in 2 years of the sale date.

Please download and read the IRS publication Kirk gave the link for. That should answer any questions you may have.

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We will be putting our house on the market in March. We had similar concerns because we have lived in our house in Southern California for 25 years in an area where real estate values hold and grow well. We will likely sell for 3 times what we paid for the original house. However, during that time we also completely remodeled and refinanced with a sizable mortgage. So, when we sell we will claim all of the remodeling costs (which were substantial) and should come out just fine.

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We will be putting our house on the market in March. We had similar concerns because we have lived in our house in Southern California for 25 years in an area where real estate values hold and grow well. We will likely sell for 3 times what we paid for the original house. However, during that time we also completely remodeled and refinanced with a sizable mortgage. So, when we sell we will claim all of the remodeling costs (which were substantial) and should come out just fine.

If your profit is less than $500,000 (for a couple) then you don't have to itemize the remodeling costs.

 

Of course if you were able to buy the house 25 years ago for $100K and now own it free and clear and sell it for say $1.1 mil that is wonderful and well worth the effort to claim the remodeling costs.

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Yes, that is what he is saying. He even gave a link to the IRS on this very subject in message #7.

 

Really people, times change and that is one of the reasons that using a program like Turbo Tax is a good idea if you haven't dealt with selling a house or receiving capital gains in a few years. Let the program walk you through the process and don't think that what you did 20 years ago is still applicable.

 

Barb

oops, completely missed that one line remark between the two quote blocks--need to wear my cheaters when looking at this forum.

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We are facing the same scenario. We sold our house yesterday. ......................That might help State taxes but not the Feds.

I think that you need a better informed tax adviser. First of all, South Dakota has no state income tax, but you would be liable for income tax, if any on your property sale in whichever state it is located in. There is no federal income tax liability on it unless the profit is more than $250,000 for a single or $500,000 for a couple. I suggest you need to read IRS publication 523.

 

You can download a free copy of the publication #523 from the IRS website, via this link.

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