We own a home and a condo. The home is our primary residence. Can one
of us move into the condo and establish it as our primary residence
and then in two years sell it and not have to pay capital gains tax on
it ?

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Request for Question Clarification by richard-ga on 10 Jun 2005 06:51 PDT

Are you a married couple?
Another reason your question has not been answered may be that it is
not priced appropiately.  Please take a look at the Google Answers
pricing quidelines.
http://answers.google.com/answers/pricing.html

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Clarification of Question by missy62-ga on 10 Jun 2005 11:46 PDT

Yes I am married and we live in Southern California.

are you married?  What state are you in?

in general the answer would be YES,
however,
assume you move to condo and sell it after two years
because you both own it - each of you would have capital gain
you will have tax exeption, but your better half will not
the same will be with house - you will pay taxes, but your spouce will not.

the ideal variant is - after two years living in house you BOTH move
to condo, and if selling after four there will not be tax
circumstances

another option - you own condo and your spouce owned the house (not
jointly) and live separetaly for two years. this option doesn't work
in California because it is a community property state, thus all
property acquired during the marriage is the result of the combined
efforts of both spouses. In community property jurisdictions, spouses
equally own all community property (fifty percent owned by the husband
and fifty percent owned by the wife).