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

Section 1231 property

Depreciable property used in a trade or business and held for more than a year. All Section 1231 gains and losses are netted; a net gain is treated as capital gain, a net loss as an ordinary loss.

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