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Sale Of Home – Real Estate Tax Tip.
Many tax benefits are available to you when you sell your principal residence. However, the rules are complex and personal guidance is necessary to take full advantage of these benefits so that you and your tax advisor can best work together to minimize the tax on the gain. This financial guide by Metro Accounting And Tax Services, CPA discusses the key rules so that you can minimize the tax on the gain.
The IRS allows an exclusion of up to $250,000 of the gain on the sale of your main home ($500,000 if you are married and file a joint return. Most taxpayers can take advantage of the exclusion and will not have to pay any tax on the sale of a main home as long as they meet the IRS ownership and use tests (see below).
It is important to note that if you have a loss from the sale, it is a personal loss. You cannot deduct the loss.
If you don’t qualify for exclusion and your gain exceeds the exclusion, or you used part of the property in business or for rent, you have a taxable gain and must report the sale of your main home on your tax return on IRS Form 8949 and Schedule D.
Principal Residence
Usually, the home you live in most of the time is your main home. In addition to a standard dwelling unit, your home can also be a houseboat, mobile home, cooperative apartment, or condominium.
Example: You own and live in a house in town. You also own beach property, which you use in the summer months. The town property is your main home; the beach property is not.
Example: You own a house, but you live in another house that you rent. The rented home is your main home.
Where a second residence has soared in value and you want to sell, some tax advisors have suggested moving to the second residence for the required period to qualify for exclusion on its sale. If this is your situation, please consult with a tax professional.
How to Figure Gain or Loss
Key information for determining gain or loss is the selling price, the amount realized, and the adjusted basis.
The selling price is the total amount you receive for your home. It includes money, all notes, mortgages or other debts assumed by the buyer as part of the sale, and the fair market value of any other property or any services you receive. Next, you deduct the selling expenses such as commissions, advertising, legal fees, and loan charges paid by the seller from the selling price.
The difference is the “amount realized.” If the amount realized is more than your home’s “adjusted basis,” discussed later, the difference is your gain. If the amount realized is less than the adjusted basis, the difference is your loss.
However, it does not include amounts you received for personal property sold with your home. Personal property is property that is not a permanent part of the home, such as furniture, draperies, and lawn equipment.
Jointly owned home. If you and your spouse sell your jointly owned home and file a joint return, you figure and report your gain or loss as one taxpayer. If you file separate returns, each of you must figure and report your own gain or loss according to your ownership interest in the home. Your ownership interest is determined by state law.
If you and a joint owner other than your spouse sell your jointly owned home, each of you must figure and report your own gain or loss according to your ownership interest in the home. Each of you applies the exclusion rules individual basis.
Trading homes. If you trade your old home for another home, treat the trade as a sale and a purchase.
Foreclosure or repossession. If your home was foreclosed on or repossessed, you have what the IRS calls a disposition and will need to determine if you have ordinary income, gain, or loss. The amount of your gain or loss depends on whether you were personally liable for repaying the debt secured by the home and whether the outstanding loan balance is more than the fair market value (FMV) of the property.
If you were not personally liable for repaying the debt secured by the home, the amount you realize includes the full amount of the outstanding debt immediately before the transfer. This is true even if the FMV of the property is less than the outstanding debt immediately before the transfer.
If you were personally liable for repaying the debt secured by the home and the debt is canceled, the amount realized on the foreclosure or repossession includes the smaller of the outstanding debt immediately before the transfer reduced by any amount for which you remain personally liable immediately after the transfer, or the Fair Market Value (FMV) of the transferred property.
In addition to any gain or loss, if you were personally liable for the debt you may have ordinary income. If the canceled debt is more than the home’s fair market value, you have ordinary income equal to the difference. However, the income from cancellation of debt is not taxed to you if the cancellation is intended as a gift, or if you are insolvent or bankrupt.
Example: You owned and lived in a home with an adjusted basis of $41,000. A real estate dealer accepted your old home as a trade-in and allowed you $50,000 toward a new house priced at $80,000 (its fair market value). You are considered to have sold your old home for $50,000 and to have had a gain of $9,000 ($50,000 minus $41,000). If the dealer had allowed you $27,000 and assumed your unpaid mortgage of $23,000 on your old home, $50,000 would still be considered the sales price of the old home (the trade-in allowed plus the mortgage assumed).
Transfer to spouse. If you transfer your home to your spouse, or to your former spouse incident to your divorce, you generally have no gain or loss, even if you receive cash or other consideration for the home. Therefore, the rules explained in this Guide do not apply.
If you owned your home jointly with your spouse and transfer your interest in the home to your spouse, or to your former spouse incident to your divorce, the same rule applies. You have no gain or loss.
If you buy or build a new home, its basis will not be affected by your transfer of your old home to your spouse, or to your former spouse incident to divorce. The basis of the home you transferred will not affect the basis of your new home.
Basis
You will need to know your basis in your home as a starting point for determining any gain or loss when you sell it. Your basis in your home is determined by how you got the home. Your basis is its cost if you bought it or built it. If you acquired it in some other way, its basis is either its fair market value when you received it or the adjusted basis of the person you received it from.
While you owned your home, you may have made adjustments (increases or decreases) to the basis. This adjusted basis is used to figure gain or loss on the sale of your home.
Cost as Basis
The cost of property is the amount you pay for it in cash or other property.
Purchase. If you buy your home, your basis is its cost to you. This includes the purchase price and certain settlement or closing costs. Your cost includes your down payment and any debt, such as a first or second mortgage or notes you gave the seller in payment for the home.
Seller-paid points. If you bought your home after April 3, 1994, you must reduce the basis of your home by any points the seller paid, whether or not you deducted them. If you bought your home after 1990 but before April 4, 1994, you must reduce your basis by the amount of seller-paid points only if you chose to deduct them as home mortgage interest in the year paid.
Settlement fees or closing costs. When buying your home, you may have to pay settlement fees or closing costs in addition to the contract price of the property. You can include in your basis the settlement fees and closing costs that are for buying the home. You cannot include in your basis the fees and costs that are for getting a mortgage loan. A fee is for buying the home if you would have had to pay it even if you paid cash for the home.
Settlement fees do not include amounts placed in escrow for the future payment of items such as taxes and insurance.
Some of the settlement fees or closing costs that you can include in the basis of your property are:
Some settlement fees and closing costs not included in your basis are:
Real estate taxes.
Real estate taxes for the year you bought your home may affect your basis, as follows:
If you pay taxes that the seller owed on the home up to the date of sale and the seller does not reimburse you, then the taxes are added to the basis of your home.
If you pay taxes that the seller owed on the home up to the date of sale and the seller does reimburse you, then the taxes do not affect the basis of your home.
If the seller pays taxes for you (taxes owed beginning on the date of sale) and you do not reimburse the seller, then the taxes are subtracted from the basis of your home.
If the seller pays taxes for you (taxes owed beginning on the date of sale) and you reimburse the seller, then the taxes do not affect the basis of your home.
Construction. If you contracted to have your house built on land you own, your basis is the cost of the land plus the amount it cost you to complete the house. This amount includes the cost of labor and materials, or the amounts paid to the contractor, and any architect’s fees, building permit charges, utility meter and connection charges, and legal fees directly connected with building your home. Your cost includes your down payment and any debt, such as a first or second mortgage or notes you gave the seller or builder. It also includes certain settlement or closing costs. You may have to reduce the basis by points the seller paid for you. If you built all or part of your house yourself, its basis is the total amount it cost you to complete it. Do not include the value of your own labor, or any other labor you did not pay for, in the cost of the house.
Cooperative apartment. Your basis in the apartment is usually the cost of your stock in the co-op housing corporation, which may include your share of a mortgage on the apartment building.
Condominium. Your basis is generally its cost to you. The same rules apply as for any other home.
Basis Other Than Cost
If your home was acquired in a transaction other than a traditional purchase (such as gift, inheritance, trade, or from a spouse), you may have to use a basis other than cost, such as fair market value.
Note: Fair market value is the price at which the property would change hands between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither having to buy or sell, and both having reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts. Sales of similar property, on or about the same date, may be helpful in figuring the fair market value of the property.
Home received as gift. If your home was a gift, its basis to you is the same as the donor’s adjusted basis when the gift was made. However, if the donor’s adjusted basis was more than the fair market value of the home when it was given to you, you must use that fair market value as your basis for measuring any loss on its sale.
If you use the donor’s adjusted basis to figure a gain and get a loss, and then use the fair market value to figure a loss and get a gain, you have neither a gain nor a loss on the sale or disposition.
If you received your home as a gift and its fair market value was more than the donor’s adjusted basis at the time of the gift, you may be able to add to your basis any federal gift tax paid on the gift. If the gift was before 1977, the basis cannot be increased to more than fair market value of the home when it was given to you. On the other hand, if you received your home as a gift after 1976, you would add to your basis the part of the federal gift tax paid that is due to the home’s “net increase” in value (value less donor’s adjusted basis).
Home received from spouse. You may have received your home from your spouse or from your former spouse incident to your divorce.
Example: Your jointly owned home had an adjusted basis of $50,000 on the date of your spouse’s death, and the fair market value on that date was $100,000. Your new basis in the home is $75,000 ($25,000 for one-half of the adjusted basis plus $50,000 for one-half of the fair market value).
In community property states (Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin), each spouse is usually considered to own half of the community property. When either spouse dies, the fair market value of the community property becomes the basis of the entire property, including the portion belonging to the surviving spouse. For this to apply, at least, half of the community interest must be included in the decedent’s gross estate, whether or not the estate must file a return.
Home received in trade.
If you acquired your home in a trade for other property, the basis of your home is generally its fair market value at the time of the trade. If you traded one home for another, you have made a sale and purchase. In that case, you may have realized a capital gain.
For all your tax planning strategies call the office today 470-240-5143.
User | 30/11/2017