Sale of Residence - Real Estate Tax Tips   You may qualify to exclude from your income all or part of any gain from the sale of your main home. Your main home is the one in which you live most of the time. Ownership and Use Tests To claim the exclusion, you must meet the ownership and use tests. This means that during the 5-year period ending on the date of the sale, you must have: Owned the home for at least two years (the ownership test) Lived in the home as your main home for at least two years (the use test) Gain If you have a gain from the sale of your main home, you may be able to exclude up to $250,000 of the gain from your income ($500,000 on a joint return in most cases). If you can exclude all of the gain, you do not need to report the sale on your tax return If you have gain that cannot be excluded, it is taxable. Report it on Schedule D (Form 1040) Loss You cannot deduct a loss from the sale of your main home. More Than One Home If you have more than one home, you can exclude gain only from the sale of your main home. You must pay tax on the gain from selling any other home. If you have two homes and live in both of them, your main home is ordinarily the one you live in most of the time. Business Use or Rental of Home You may be able to exclude part of your gain from the sale of a home that you have used for business or to produce rental income. But you must meet the ownership and use tests. If you have more questions with particular circumstances please call us at (808) 242-1553