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by Chris Barnes on August 1st, 2004

Chris Barnes

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In order to be exempt from capital gains tax (up to $500,000), a homeowner must live in a property for two of the previous five years. Do the two years need to be consecutive?

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  • by From of Old on December 3rd, 2004

    From of Old

    From www.Bankrate.com
    http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/real-estate/20041018a1.asp

    "...your actual habitation of the home doesn't have to be sequential, notes Mark Luscombe, lawyer, accountant and principal tax analyst at CCH Inc., a Riverwoods, Ill.-based provider of tax law information and software. The IRS lets you aggregate your time living in the house to meet the two-year residency requirement.

    "Generally, if you owned and used the home as your main home for periods totaling at least two years within five years ending on the date of these sale, you're eligible for the exclusion," says RIA's Trinz. "You look back at the last five years. Ownership and use may be at two different times. This would apply if you owned a home for five years, but didn't use it as your primary residence for that full period. For the first three years, you rented it and then moved into it as your main home for the final two before you sold it."

    But you don't even have to live in the house at the date of sale. The flexibility of the use test means you could live in your house for a year, rent it for two, move back in for another year and rent it again the year before you sell. Since during those five years you owned and lived in the property for two years, you meet the use and ownership tests."

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