I understand the obvious easy answer is to wait 3 months, but situation could dictate otherwise. ==========>> I guess it depends; To qualify, you need to own and live in the property have your primary residence for at least 2 years out of the 5 years ending on the date of sale.
I believe the old laws allowed you to "roll" your equity over without considering it a gain, but I'm having trouble locating anything in the IRS tax code indicating that is still the case====>> The rollover or once-in-a-lifetime options were replaced with the current per-sale exclusion amounts. There is some logic to this law change because most people under the prior rules didn't recognize a taxable gain, because they rolled it over into another residence before May 7, 1997, the only way you could avoid paying taxes on your home-sale gain was to use the money to buy another, more-expensive house within 2years;however, you SELLIN’ your home before reaching the 2 years mark will find no pot of tax-free gold at the end of the rainbow. The profit of $70k generated from the sale of your home will be taxed at the long-term capital gains tax rate of either 0 or 15 %, depending on your tax bracket.
Profits from the sale of a home owned for more than one year but less than two years will be taxed at the long-term capital gains of either 0 or 15 %. Worse yet, homeowners buying and selling within a one year period are taxed at the ordinary income rate, anywhere from 10 to 35 or 39.6% in 2014.
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