My home sale capital gains tax?

How it works

1. Gain on the sale = (sale price − selling costs) − (purchase price and buying costs + improvements). Empty optional boxes count as $0. Below $0 is a loss, which is not deductible, so a loss gives $0 excluded, $0 taxable and $0 tax.
2. Maximum exclusion: $500,000 married filing jointly, $250,000 for every other filing status.
   • "Yes" (owned and lived in it 2 of the last 5 years): the full amount.
   • "Moved early": the full amount × months ÷ 24, where months (0 to 24) is the shortest of the months you owned it, the months you lived in it in the last 5 years, and the months since you last excluded gain on a home.
   • "No": $0.
3. Gain you exclude = the smaller of the gain and the maximum exclusion (for a gain above $0).
4. Taxable gain = gain − the gain you exclude.
5. Federal tax on the sale = the 2026 federal tax with the taxable gain − the federal tax without it. Both returns have your other income as ordinary income (not wages), the standard deduction ($16,100 single and married filing separately, $32,200 married filing jointly and qualifying surviving spouse, $24,150 head of household) and no credits:
   • the taxable gain is a long-term capital gain when you answered "Yes", or when you owned the home more than 1 year; otherwise ("1 year or less") a short-term gain, taxed as ordinary income. "Moved early" with more than 12 months that count and "1 year or less" contradict each other (the months that count are never more than the months you owned it), so there is no answer: "More than 12 months that count means you owned the home more than 1 year, so the gain is long-term.";
   • tax on taxable income follows Form 1040 line 16: below $100,000 the Tax Table (the 2026 rate schedule at the middle of the income's row: rows of $0 to $5, $5 to $15 and $15 to $25, then $25 rows up to $3,000 and $50 rows from $3,000, rounded to whole dollars, half up), and the exact rate schedule from $100,000;
   • a long-term gain goes through the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet: ordinary income first, then the gain at 0% up to $49,450 of taxable income ($98,900 joint and surviving spouse, $66,200 head of household, $49,450 separately), 15% up to $545,500 ($613,700 joint and surviving spouse, $579,600 head of household, $306,850 separately) and 20% above, but never more than the tax figured as if it were ordinary income;
   • the 3.8% net investment income tax on the lesser of the taxable gain and modified AGI over $200,000 ($250,000 joint and surviving spouse, $125,000 separately).
6. Net investment income tax part = that tax with the gain − without it.
7. Rate on the taxable gain = tax on the sale ÷ taxable gain × 100 (shown when the taxable gain is above $0).
8. Gain after tax = gain − tax on the sale.

The gain amounts are exact decimals of what you typed; the federal tax uses the site's tax engine, which works in floating point, and the results show to the cent. If the gain, the maximum exclusion, the excluded or the taxable gain, or the rate is not 0 but too small to show as a number, there is no answer: 'A result is too small to show as a number: check the amounts.'

Figures that change each year

When the data is out of date

After April 15, 2027 the page keeps using the 2026 tax tables and says so above the result.

Assumptions

• Tax year 2026, federal tax only, the sale of your main home. A joint return assumes both spouses meet the 2-year use test; other statuses use $250,000 (a surviving spouse who sells within 2 years of the death may qualify for $500,000).
• Other income is ordinary income such as wages, with the standard deduction and no credits. Every amount is at most $1 trillion.
• Left out: depreciation after May 6, 1997 (taxed up to 25%), periods after 2008 when the home was not your main home, military and other special rules, and state tax. An estimate, not tax advice.

Worked examples by hand

Single, sold for $900,000 with $54,000 of selling costs, bought for $400,000, $60,000 of improvements, $85,000 of other income. Gain = 846,000 − 460,000 = $386,000; exclude $250,000; taxable gain = $136,000. Without the sale: taxable income = 85,000 − 16,100 = 68,900; Tax Table row middle 68,925: 1,240 + 4,560 + 22% × 18,525 = 9,875.50, so $9,876. With it: taxable income = 204,900, of which 136,000 is gain; the ordinary 68,900 is taxed $9,876, the gain sits above $49,450, so 15% × 136,000 = 20,400; tax = $30,276. Net investment income tax: modified AGI 221,000 is $21,000 over $200,000, so 3.8% × 21,000 = $798. Tax on the sale = 30,276 + 798 − 9,876 = $21,198; gain after tax = $364,802.

Married filing jointly, sold for $1,200,000 with $70,000 of costs, bought for $500,000, $100,000 of improvements, $150,000 of other income. Gain = 1,130,000 − 600,000 = $530,000; exclude $500,000; taxable gain = $30,000. Taxable income without the sale = 150,000 − 32,200 = 117,800 (above the 0% limit of $98,900), so the gain is taxed at 15%: $4,500. Modified AGI of $180,000 is under $250,000: no net investment income tax.

Single, moved after 15 months for a new job: sold for $600,000 with $36,000 of costs, bought for $380,000, $70,000 of other income. Gain = 564,000 − 380,000 = $184,000; maximum exclusion = 15 ÷ 24 × 250,000 = $156,250; taxable gain = $27,750, long-term. Taxable income without it is 53,900, above $49,450, so the gain is taxed at 15% = $4,162.50.

A loss: sold for $300,000 with $18,000 of costs, bought for $320,000. Gain = 282,000 − 320,000 = −$38,000. A loss on your own home is not deductible: $0 tax.