Property (Basis, Sale of Home, etc.)
This is archived information that pertains only to the 2002 Tax Year. If you
are looking for information for the current tax year, go to the Tax Prep Help Area.
What is the amount of capital gains from the sale of a home that can be excluded if sold in less than the two year waiting period?
If you owned and lived in the property as your main home for less than 2 years, you may still be able to claim an exclusion in some cases. The maximum amount you can exclude will be reduced.
You can claim this reduced exclusion if either of the following is true.
- You did not meet the ownership and use tests on a home you sold due to:
- a change in health
- a change in place of employment
- to the extent provided by regulations, unforeseen circumstances. (see below)
- Your exclusion would have been disallowed because of the rule on selling more than one home in a two year period, except you sold the home due to:
- a change in health
- a change in place of employment
- to the extent provided by regulations, unforeseen circumstances. (see below)
Use the worksheet in Publication 523 (PDF), Selling Your Home, to figure your reduced exclusion.
The IRS has not as yet issued regulations defining unforseen circumstances. You cannot claim an exclusion based on unforeseen circumstances until the IRS issues final regulations or appropriate guidelines.
Refer to Reduced Maximum Exclusion and Special Situations in Publication 523 (PDF), Selling Your Home.
References: I lived in a home as my principal residence for the first 2 of the last 5 years. For the last 3 years, the home was a rental property before selling it. Can I still avoid the capital gains tax and, if so, how should I deal with the depreciation I took while it was rented out?
If, during the 5-year period ending on the date of sale, you owned the home for at least 2 years and lived in it as your main home for at least 2 years, you can exclude up to $250,000 of the gain ($500,000 on a joint return in most cases). However, you cannot exclude the portion of the gain equal to depreciation allowed or allowable for periods after May 6, 1997. Since you cannot exclude all of the gain, report the entire gain realized on Form 1040, Schedule D (PDF) line 8. Report the amount of exclusion you qualify for on the line directly below the line on which you report the gain. Write Section 121 exclusion in column (a) of that line and show the amount of the exclusion in column (f) as a loss (in parentheses).
For additional information on selling your home, refer to Publication 523 (PDF), Selling Your Home.
References: 10.2 Captial Gains, Losses/Sale of Home: Stocks (Options, Splits, Traders) When I sell shares of stock in a company that merged with the company I originally invested in, do I use the basis and holding periods based on the purchase of shares in the original company?
Usually, when you trade stock in one corporation for stock in another as part of a merger or other qualifying reorganization, you have a nontaxable exchange. The basis of the stock you received is generally the same as the basis of the old stock, increased by any dividend treated as received or gain recognized on the exchange and decreased by the value of property or money received.
You may receive cash or something of value instead of a fractional share if the number of shares of new stock doesn't divide evenly into the number of shares of the old stock. You treat this as a sale of the fractional share.
Your basis in the new stock is determined, in whole or in part, by your basis in the old stock. Your holding period for the new stock will include the holding period for the old stock, provided that the old stock was held as a capital asset at the time of the exchange. For special basis rules relating to incentive stock options and options granted under employee stock purchase plan see Revenue Ruling 80-244, in IRS 1980-2 Cumulative Bulletin at page 235.
Refer to Publication 550 (PDF), Investment Income and Expenses.
References: Would shares in mutual fund acquired through dividend reinvestment in prior years be long-term capital gains while shares acquired through dividend reinvestment in the year of sale be treated as short-term capital gains?
Any shares or fractional shares purchased and sold during the current tax year are short-term capital assets. For shares purchased in the year previous to the tax year to be considered long-term, the holding period must be more than one year.
References: Does the holding period for new shares I received as a result of a stock split start on the purchase date of the original stock or on the date of the stock split?
The holding period of the stock you received as a result of the stock split begins on the same day as the holding period of the original stock.
References: I purchased stock through an employee stock purchase plan at my work which split three months later. Three months after that, I sold the stock at a gain. How does the split affect how I report the stock sale on my tax return?
With either of the two types of statutory employee stock option plans, there is no income as a result of the granting of the option or the exercising of the option (purchasing stock). These two types of plans are the employee stock purchase plan and the incentive stock option plan. However, if you don't hold the stock long enough to meet the holding period requirements, when the stock is sold you may have to report compensation income (wages). The split will affect the computation of capital gain and compensation income, if any.
For the stock purchased under an employee stock purchase plan to receive favorable tax treatment, it must be held for at least two years after the option is granted and at least one year after the option is exercised. If the holding periods are not met, the lesser of the fair market value of the stock on the grant date minus the option price or the fair market value on the sale date minus the amount you paid for the stock is compensation income (wages). To the extent that the gain is being taxed as wages on your return, it becomes part of your adjusted basis in the stock sold. When determining basis, the amount you paid for the stock is divided equally among the shares received in the split.
For information on incentive stock option plans and nonstatutory stock options, or more information on employee stock purchase plans, refer to Publication 525 (PDF), Taxable and Nontaxable Income
References: 10.3 Captial Gains, Losses/Sale of Home: Mutual Funds (Costs, Distributions, etc.) If I own some mutual fund shares less than a year and other shares more than a year, do I need to do two separate computations for an average basis method?
If you are electing or have previously elected to use the double-category method for that mutual fund, you need to do two separate computations; one for long-term and one for short-term-only. The single-category method requires only one computation of average basis.
For more information, refer to Publication 564 (PDF), Mutual Fund Distributions, Sales, Exchanges, and Redemptions.
References: If I use the an average basis method for computing basis of mutual fund shares upon sale, how do I determine the holding period for those shares?
How you determine the holding period of mutual fund shares you sold depends on which of the two average basis methods you are electing to use. Once you have elected a method, you must use that method for determining the basis of any shares sold in the future from that fund.
For the purpose of determining your holding period using the single-category method, the shares disposed of are considered the shares that you acquired first. When using the double-category method, you need to determine the holding period for each share based on the trade date the share was acquired, then assign the share to either the short-term category (held one year or less) or the long-term category (held more than one year).
References: 11.4 Sale or Trade of Business, Depreciation, Rentals: Sales, Trades, Exchanges Can we move into our rental property, live there as our main home for two years, and sell it without having to pay capital gains tax?
You may be able to exclude your gain from the sale of your main home that you have also used for business or to produce rental income if you meet the ownership and use tests, detailed in Publication 523 (PDF), Sale of Your Home.
However, if you were entitled to take depreciation deductions because you used your home for business purposes or as rental property, you cannot exclude the part of your gain equal to any depreciation allowed or allowable as a deduction for periods after May 6, 1997. (Note: If you can show by adequate records or other evidence that the depreciation deduction allowed (did deduct) was less than the amount allowable (could have deducted), the amount you cannot exclude is the smaller of those two figures.)
The gain, exclusion, and depreciation recapture should be reported on Form 1040, Schedule D (PDF), Capital Gains and Losses, as described in Publication 523 (PDF), Selling Your Home.
References:
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