Selling Your Home? Don’t Miss Out on These Tax Benefits

No one likes paying taxes. But if you’re selling your home, there may be ways you can leverage your home sale to lower your tax bill.

So how, exactly, do you do that?

A recent article from realtor.com outlined key tax deductions, write-offs, and exemptions available to home sellers, including:

• Selling costs. Legal fees. Escrow fees. Real estate commissions. Even home staging! As long as the property is a primary residence and you’ve lived in the home for at least two of the last five years, any expenses directly related to selling your home are deductible in that you can subtract them from the sales price of your home, which impacts your capital gains tax—and can definitely help you save some money.
• Home improvements. If you improved your home in order to make it more appealing to buyers, those qualify as selling costs—and, as such, you can deduct them from your final sales price. However, these need to have been directly related to the sale of your home and done within 90 days of the closing.
• Property taxes. Before you sold your home, you owned it—which means you can deduct property taxes (up to $10,000) for the tax year when you owned and lived in the home.

Of course, we always recommend you discuss with your tax professional for details on your specific situation.