November 24th, 2008

is it true that if you sell a home you absolutely have to buy another one or the irs/gov will take $$$$$$$?

questions mark asked:


i sold home for hardship reasons and don’t feel prepared to buy another one any time soon, years maybe but I heard you get taxed a lot of money - is it depending on how much you sell for?

This entry was posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 5:50 pm and is filed under Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Responses to “is it true that if you sell a home you absolutely have to buy another one or the irs/gov will take $$$$$$$?”

  1. confuzed Says:
    November 27th, 2008 at 11:57 pm

    AS far as I know, you have to pay taxes on the sale if you make a profit of $500,000 or more on your house, not otherwise.

  2. Wascal Wabbit Says:
    November 29th, 2008 at 9:39 am

    I have heard from senior citizen friends that there is a one time exclusion on capitol gains from selling your primary residence as long as you actually lived there. I’d suggest calling the IRS. They probably have a recording explaining that law.

  3. adnerb Says:
    November 29th, 2008 at 2:55 pm

    check with a tax guy…..I THINK mine said I was allowed a PROFIT of 250 thousand before Uncle Sam got more than his fair share. Just call a tax person in the yellow pages…..I wouldn’t do HR Block or any of the biggies…..I have heard they are kinda in with “the man”.

  4. dkwr14 Says:
    December 1st, 2008 at 1:01 am

    Capital Gain taxes… yeah they ****.. Luckily depending on how long you had the home you may avoid that ugly 25% capital gain tax. If you have owned it for more than 2 years your scott free. Here is a few options in case you had it for less than 2 years. You can deposit it all into a tax sheltered mutual fund, an IRA, or a ROTH-IRA. Or option two you can buy another house. The thing you don’t want to do though is let it sit in your bank account because than the IRS will know your making a profit. Got it?? If you are still confused than for your moneys safety hire a Financial Adviser to assist you with your funding needs. Good luck.

  5. The Sandman Says:
    December 2nd, 2008 at 9:52 am

    You are allowed to sell a principal residence once every two years and exclude up to $250,000 ($500,000 for a married couple) of the gain on the sale.