Howdy cplavan-ga,
A reminder of the "Important Disclaimer: Answers and comments provided on
Google Answers are general information, and are not intended to substitute
for informed professional medical, psychiatric, psychological, tax, legal,
investment, accounting, or other professional advice."
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Publication 523 "Selling Your Home" covers
your question. Starting on page 15 of this document is a section titled
"Unforeseen Circumstances" which is applicable to your circumstances.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p523.pdf
"The sale of your main home is because of an unforeseen circumstance if
your primary reason for the sale is the occurrence of an event that you
could not reasonably have anticipated before buying and occupying your
main home. You are not considered to have an unforeseen circumstance if
the primary reason you sold your home was that you preferred to get a
different home or your finances improved.
Specific event safe harbors. Unforeseen circumstances are considered to
be the reason you sold your home if any of the following events occurred
while you owned and used the property as your main home.
...
3. In the case of qualified individuals (listed earlier under Change in
Place of Employment):
a. Death,
b. Unemployment (if the individual is eligible for unemployment
compensation),
c. A change in employment or self-employment status that results in your
inability to pay reasonable basic living expenses ..."
The above document goes on to cover the event if you had sold and excluded
gains from that sale of another house in the two years prior to the sale
of this house, etc. Even then, you might be able to claim lesser gains.
You will want to read the above document thoroughly for the details of the
various circumstances that might apply to your exact situation, but in
general, you should not have to pay any, or at least a reduced amount, of
capital gains taxes on the sale of your house because of unemployment.
If you need any clarification, please feel free to ask.
Search strategy:
Went to the IRS website and searched on: home sale
http://www.irs.gov
Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher |
