Home Sale Capital Gain and Exclusion Calculator
Your taxable gain is not your tax bill: this ledger starts from full adjusted basis and uses a Section 121 cap you confirm first, never one it picks.
What This Calculator Does
Selling a U.S. home and bracing for capital gains tax on a home sale? Start with the gain, set out line by line next to your exclusion. It runs on your full adjusted basis, the selling costs that qualify, and an exclusion cap that was settled outside this page before you begin. Gain that can't be excluded goes in as one total, in a field of its own. The results keep gain, your chosen limit, the exclusion used and taxable gain apart. What you owe, and whether you qualify at all, are questions this ledger leaves unanswered.
Who Is This For
It's built for Florida home sellers and the real estate pros who work with them. Any U.S. tax assumption behind a figure should be written down and checked by a tax adviser. Enter one taxpayer's numbers for one ownership interest; co-owned shares aren't divided here. You still need your own basis determination, tax return and closing statement, and this page replaces none of them.
How It Works
Dollars first: sale price, eligible selling costs, full adjusted basis. Where something doesn't apply, a 0 goes in. Now the exclusion. You get a single choice among no exclusion, the full limit you've already confirmed, and a partial figure settled elsewhere; that partial box only matters in partial mode. The non-excludable field takes the TOTAL portion of gain that can't be excluded, or 0 if there's none. Read through all eight outputs. Depreciation belongs in a single place in your numbers, so don't subtract it anywhere else. A zero taxable gain is a ledger line, not a promise that your actual tax is zero.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the taxable gain figure what I'll actually pay?
No. It's the step before tax. Your sale price, less the selling costs that qualify, is the amount realized. Knock your complete adjusted basis off that to get the gain. Your chosen Section 121 limit works only on eligible positive gain; the leftover is taxable gain, not tax. Rates, NIIT, FIRPTA withholding and state tax aren't applied here, so no result shows zero tax or a refund.
Which numbers build my complete adjusted basis?
It begins with your applicable original basis, which then moves up and down. Picture a purchase at $400,000. Qualifying acquisition costs of $10,000 go on top, and so do $50,000 of capital improvements, for a $460,000 basis. Every reduction the rules require comes off, depreciation allowed or allowable included. Careful with loan and closing charges: not all of them count. Now sell for $800,000 and pay $40,000 to sell. The gain? $300,000. A confirmed $250,000 limit, with nothing non-excludable, leaves $50,000 taxable. That $50,000 is still not your tax bill.
What must be settled before I take the full $250,000 or $500,000?
Your qualification, decided before you ever choose that mode. The usual tests look back over the 5-year window before the sale. Within it, you generally owned the home for at least 2 years and used it as your main home for at least 2 years. You also generally can't have claimed a Section 121 exclusion on a different sale in the 2 years before. Filing jointly won't unlock the full joint limit on its own. Either spouse can carry the ownership test, while the use test and the prior-exclusion restriction have to be cleared by both of you. Surviving-spouse rules and other exceptions get worked out separately with a tax professional.
Can I get a partial exclusion figured here?
No. A reduced limit has to arrive already decided. Whatever the reason (a new job, health, an unforeseen event, some other exception), that figure gets fixed by your tax adviser first. Choose partial mode and type in the confirmed amount, even if it's 0, as long as 0 is what was determined. The calculator applies the number you gave it and nothing else. It neither counts the days you qualify nor signs off on any exception.
What happens to my ledger with depreciation or nonqualified use?
Both feed a single field: the TOTAL non-excludable gain, which gets worked out before you enter it. Inside that total sits the applicable depreciation taken after May 6, 1997, whether allowed or allowable, plus any allocation for nonqualified use. Don't let those pieces overlap. Here's a run: basis $270,000, sale $500,000, no selling costs, so the gain is $230,000. Mark $30,000 as non-excludable and $200,000 is left as eligible gain. A confirmed $250,000 limit excludes all $200,000, and the $30,000 is taxable. If depreciation has already lowered your basis, don't take it off again. No recapture tax, no home-office allocation: the ledger computes neither.
Sold at a loss, inherited the place, or got zero taxable gain: then what?
A loss stays negative in the ledger. Don't expect a refund or credit from it, and on a personal residence it's generally not deductible. With no positive gain, non-excludable gain is 0, the exclusion applied is 0 and taxable gain is zero. Inherited or gifted home? Your tax adviser sets the right basis first; a zero basis is never a shortcut. Zero taxable gain proves neither zero tax nor zero FIRPTA withholding. A mortgage payoff doesn't lower the gain.