Selling Home - Do I get taxed? - Oak Harbor, WA - Military

[Lisa Landivar]

Hello BP community!

An offer has been accepted and my closing date is 3/16/17 on my home in Oak Harbor, WA. My husband and I are military and we both own the home. However, we have only owned it for about 3 years, we lived in it for about 2 years, and rented it for 1 year.

Do I have to pay taxes next year on my gains? We are selling it for 337k and bought it in 2014 for 256k. We file our taxes jointly. I keep hearing 1031 exchange if we want to invest, but what if we don't want to? We currently live in MD state, we moved out of our home in WA because we got military orders to MD state. Is there some kind of break for us?

Thank you so much!

[Gina Jeannot]

My understanding is that if you and your husband used the home and your primary residence for at least 2 of the last 5 years before selling it you're exempt from paying excise tax for up to $500k in gains for the time you were living there. 

The year you used it as a rental would normally be considered "non qualified use" however, since you say you moved because of the military, I believe your exempt because any temporary absence not exceeding 2 years due to employment cannot be considered non qualified use. 

Probably best to talk to a CPA on this one.