If I sell my home but don't use the equity to purchase another, will I get taxed?

Question

I am selling my home to be with my husband in the military. We will be renting or living on bases for the next several years. No need to buy until he is retired. But I'm concerned that I will get substantially taxed on the equity I make from this sale. What are my options?

Answer 1

For starters...if this has been your primary residence for at least the last two years...you are going to get a tax break. The amount of the break will be determined as follows. Was this your residence as a single person...or as a married person. If this has been your residence as a single person... then you are NOT taxed upon the first $ 250,000 of profits you make when selling the home. Profit is determined by deducting the original purchase price of the home plus the cost of additions and improvements you made to the home plus the costs of selling the home from the sales price of the home. If this number is less than $ 250,000 you owe no taxes. If this was your home while married for at least the last two years....you avoid taxes upon the first $ 500,000 of profits from the sale. Any profits above the thresholds discussed above will be taxed at your marginal capital gains tax rate...which will probably be 15 percent....unless you had used the property for a rental or for business in the past. The tax upon the depreciation that you might have taken in the past (if you used the property as a rental or for business) will be taxed at 25 percent of the depreciation taken.

Answer 2

You're talking about "capital gains".

If you lived there 2 years or the gross sale price is under 250k, don't worry about it.

It's possible there's an exemption for transfers because of being in the military, as well, I'm not certain either way.

At any rate, the tax isn't on "equity", it's basically on the difference between what you paid and what you sell it for. That should be a bit less than "equity".

Using the equity to buy another house wouldn't help anyway, unless you set the sale up as a "1031 exchange" beforehand. There are some restrictions, like you only have so long after the sale to identify the replacement property, and little more time than that to complete the transaction, and in the meantime, the money cannot be in your direct control (or your attorney's).

Answer 3

as long as your equity is under 250/k and you've lived in the house over 2 years you will not be taxed.

open4one is an idiot!