Two home sale exclusions

[wageslave23]

I have a rental that I used to live in that I'm planning on selling.  I lived in it for the first two of the last 5 years.  Then I want to sell the house I'm currently in.  I will have lived in the current house for more than 2 years but I might selling it less than 24 months from the sale of the 1st house.  Would both still qualify?  Separately I know they both qualify but I'm not sure if the rule that you can't have two home sale exclusions within 2 yrs is an exact 24 months and/or is it only a practical rule for people who are buying a house and selling before living in it for two years.

[terran]

According to https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc701 you "generally" must wait at least 2 years between exclusions. Whether there is some exception that causes them to use the word "generally" I don't know.

Remember that you'll still need to recapture the depreciation for the time the home was a rental. I've never had to do it, so I don't know the specifics.

[ChpBstrd]

Publication 523 is authoritative. I see nothing in it limiting the number of home sales you can claim, other than the obvious fact you can only fit two two-year periods into five years.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p523

You could do a live in house flip every two years tax-free, because for each individual house the residency and ownership tests would both be true.

[terran]

Publication 523 is authoritative. I see nothing in it limiting the number of home sales you can claim, other than the obvious fact you can only fit two two-year periods into five years.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p523

You could do a live in house flip every two years tax-free, because for each individual house the residency and ownership tests would both be true.

See Eligibility Step 4 -- Look-Back https://www.irs.gov/publications/p523#en_US_2017_publink10008998

[SeattleCPA]

FWIW, agree with Terran and ChpBstrd...

[wageslave23]

FWIW, agree with Terran and ChpBstrd...

Aren't they saying two different things?  It looks like I wouldn't qualify because of the look back

[ChpBstrd]

Publication 523 is authoritative. I see nothing in it limiting the number of home sales you can claim, other than the obvious fact you can only fit two two-year periods into five years.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p523

You could do a live in house flip every two years tax-free, because for each individual house the residency and ownership tests would both be true.

See Eligibility Step 4 -- Look-Back https://www.irs.gov/publications/p523#en_US_2017_publink10008998

Terran is correct. I missed that part!

[SeattleCPA]

I misread Chpbstrd to initially say you could take Sec. 121 every two years... Now I see that was not was he originally said. Sorry.

[wageslave23]

Thanks everyone for the help.