Even if you converted your main home into a rental property (or vice versa), you may be able to exclude some of the gain on the sale of your home if you meet the ownership and use tests. This means that during the 5-year period ending on the date of the sale, you must have:
If you meet these tests, how you report this transaction on your tax return will be based upon whether the home was your main home or a rental home at the time of the sale. If at the time of the sale, this home was your main home, see the section Main Home below. If this home was a rental property at the time of the sale, see Rental Home below.
Even though the home may have been your main home at the time of sale, you still need to determine if you have any rental income to claim on your current year tax return. If during the tax year, this home was a rental home which generated income and was then your main home prior to sale, you will need to report the income from the portion of the year the home was a rental home. To report the rental income and the sale of your main home, see Current Year Rental Income below. If there is no rental income to report on your tax return, you can just report the sale of your main home.
To report the sale of your main home in the TaxAct program, go to our Sale of Home - Sale of Main Home FAQ.
Be sure to click the info icon on the screen titled Sale of Main Home - Date Acquired/Sold to determine how many days you should enter for the Period of Nonqualified Use, if applicable. Depending on the number of days you entered for the Period of Nonqualified Use, if any, you may have a taxable gain to report on Schedule D (Form 1040) Capital Gains and Losses, Line 13. Also, please be aware of the depreciation fields on the screen titled Sale of Main Home - Basis of Home.
Unrecaptured section 1250 gain is the part of any long-term capital gain from the sale of your home that is due to depreciation and cannot be excluded. To figure the amount of unrecaptured section 1250 gain to be reported on Schedule D (Form 1040) , you must also take into account certain gains or losses from the sale of property other than your home. Use the Unrecaptured Section 1250 Gain Worksheet in the Schedule D instructions for this purpose. Based on your entries, the TaxAct program will fill out the Unrecaptured Section 1250 Gain Worksheet. This amount will appear on Schedule D, Line 19.
If the property qualifies as your main home at the time of sale, but you have rental income to report for the current year, go to our Schedule E - Entering Depreciation in Program FAQ:
After you have entered the disposition of the rental home, you will want to fill out the Schedule D Home Sale Worksheet. To access this worksheet, go to our Sale of Home - Sale of Main Home FAQ.
Be sure to click the info icon on the screen titled Sale of Main Home - Date Acquired/Sold to determine how many days you should enter for the Period of Nonqualified Use, if applicable. Depending on the number of days you entered for the Period of Nonqualified Use, if any, you may have a taxable gain to report on Schedule D (Form 1040), Line 13. Also, please be aware of the depreciation fields on the screen titled Sale of Main Home - Basis of Home.
At the time of sale, this home was considered a rental home. However, if you still meet the ownership and use tests based upon the five years preceding the date of sale, you may qualify to exclude some of the gain on the sale. If these tests are met, see Reporting the Exclusion below.
To enter the sale of this rental home in the TaxAct program, go to our Schedule E - Entering Rental Property in Program FAQ.
You will come across a screen titled Rental Income - Disposal. Since you have permanently taken this property out of business/rental use, then you would want to select Yes when the program asks if you disposed of your interest in this property.
Once you indicate you have disposed of your interest in this property, you will want to properly indicate this disposal within the depreciation section, also, if you had been depreciating the rental home. The depreciation section will come immediately after you enter your rental income and expenses (if you have already entered your applicable income and expenses, then you can click No on those screens to pass those sections and move directly on to depreciation).
Once you get to the depreciation section, click Review next to the rental property. Within the depreciation entries, you will come across a screen titled Depreciation - Disposed, where you will want to enter the Date Sold. By entering this date on this screen, the TaxAct program will automatically calculate the partial year depreciation for you.
You will complete Schedule E Supplemental Income and Loss to report the current year rental income and expenses. During the interview for this income, you will be able to indicate the property has been disposed. The program will then proceed with questions to report the sale of this property.
To report the exclusion, go to our Schedule E - Entering Rental Property in Program FAQ.
After completing the interview for the disposition of the rental property, this transaction will appear on Form 4797 Sales of Business Property as a gain. The full gain will be considered taxable at this point. You will then enter this exclusion amount as a separate transaction on Form 4797.
To enter the Section 121 Exclusion amount on Form 4797 (if you need help accessing Form 4797, go to our Form 4797 - Sale of Business Property Sale of Asset Entry into Program FAQ):
Note. If using Quick Entry View or the Forms, you must check the box for Part I or the exclusion will not be reported on Form 4797.
Note that any link in the information above is updated each year automatically and will take you to the most recent version of the webpage or document at the time it is accessed.