Submitted By: Roger
Answered: February 26, 2016 10:55 am

We’ve owned a home in New York for 40 years. Two years ago we purchased a home in South Carolina and plan to put our home up north up for sale. Can we claim the home sale exclusion?

It depends on when the sale takes place. If you sell so that you will have used the home for at least two years within the five years before the sale, you will be able to take the exclusion. If it takes a long time to sell and you are no longer using the New York home as your residence, you may be out of luck.

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Tax Glossary

Disaster losses

Casualty losses such as from a storm, in areas declared by the President to warrant federal assistance. An election may be made to deduct the loss in the year before the loss or the year of the loss.

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