By Mark P. Cussen
In 1997, American homeowners received one of the largest tax breaks in U.S. history. The Taxpayer Relief Act granted homeowners the privilege of excluding the gain on the sale of their homes within broad limits. The old rules merely allowed homeowners over the age of 55 to defer the gain on the sale of their homes by rolling it into the purchase of a new residence. Furthermore, this deferral was only available once per homeowner. But the new law has effectively swept those limitations away. Now homeowners who qualify can use this exclusion again and again. Obviously, this act has saved countless homeowners thousands of dollars in taxes, and also provided a real shot in the arm to the real estate industry.
But there are certain provisions that must be met in order to qualify for this special exclusion. The first condition is simply that the house being sold must be your primary residence, and not a vacation home or rental property. This condition is actually broken down into two parts:
1. The ownership test- the sellers must have owned the residence for two out of the last five years prior to the sale of the residence. For example, if the sellers rented the house for four years and then bought it a year before the sale, then they do not qualify for the exclusion.
2. The use test - the sellers must have actually lived in the residence for at least two out of the previous five years prior to the date of the sale. The two years do not have to be contiguous; they can be chronologically broken up in any way, as long as the total time spent in the residence is equal to at least two years.
Furthermore, the actual amount of the exclusion does have a limit. Single taxpayers can exclude up to $250,000 on the gain of their residences, while joint filers can exclude twice that amount, up to $500,000. But this money does not have to be used to purchase another residence; it can now be used for whatever the seller wishes. About the only other real limitation for this exclusion is that it can only be used by taxpayers once every two years.
译文:
售房前请确保你享有课税免豁权
By Mark P. Cussen
在1997年，美国私房屋主享受到了美国历史上最大的税额优惠之一。减轻纳税人负担的法案授予私房屋主一项特权，那就是在很宽的限额内不用他们交纳出售房屋的所得的相应税收。旧条例仅仅是允许55岁以上的私房屋主用售房所得购置新住宅而延期纳税。而且，每个私房屋主只有一次延期纳税的机会。但是新法有效地破除了这些限制。现在，只要符合条件的私房屋主就能一次又一次地使用课税豁免权。很明显，这项法案为无数的私房屋主省去了数千美元的税额，同时也确实为房地产业注入了一剂强心剂。
但是，要满足一定的条款才能享有这个特殊的课税豁免权利。第一个条件就是要出售的房子必须是你最主要的住宅，而不能是度假屋或者租借的财产。这个条件事实上可以分为2个部分：
1、所有权检验——在出售住宅前的5年内，出售者必须有2年以上的所有权。举例来说，如果出售者租了4年的房子，然后在出售在一年又买下了这套房子，那么他们实则不享有课税豁免权。
2、使用检验——在出售期之前的前5年，出售者必须确实在此住宅居住了至少2年。这2年并不一定是要连续的2年，它们可以按年代以任何方式分隔开，只要住在这房子里的总时间至少有2年即可。
此外，课税豁免权享有的实际金额还是有一个限度的。单身的纳税人最多可以不支付售房所得中25万美元的税额，而联合售房者可以不交付这个数额的2倍的税金，也就是最多50万美元。但是这钱不一定要用于购买另一套房子。现在售房者想怎么用这笔钱都可以。唯一关于这项课税豁免权的另一个限制就是纳税人只能每2年使用一次这项权利。