My parents recently sold their home, and the tax implications of that
sale came up as I was preparing their taxes, so I thought I’d issue a
reminder of the current tax law with regard to the sale of your primary
residence. It is pretty straightforward: taxpayers filing singly are
entitled to $250,000 in profit without paying any tax, and married
filers are entitled to $500,000 in profits tax-free. There is no longer
any requirement to roll gains into a more expensive home, either.
Again, this only pertains to the sale of a primary residence…rental
homes don’t apply. That generally means that one would have had to live
in the home for two of the previous five years to qualify, even if
those two years were not consecutive.