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What you need to know
The capital gains tax on a real estate sale depends on one question: was it your main home? That single fact decides whether a large slice of the gain is tax-free or fully taxable, and online calculators skip it.
Live in it as your main home for two of the five years before selling, and the home-sale exclusion erases up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 if you file jointly. That is the single biggest break in the capital gains tax on a real estate sale, and it is the first thing we check.
Gain above that cap is still taxable, and the exclusion only covers a home you lived in, so a long-held, highly appreciated home can still leave a taxable gain after it is applied. The exclusion can be used once every two years, and a partial exclusion can apply when a work move, health issue, or other unforeseen event forces an early sale.
Taxpayers approach us after doing their taxes in TurboTax or on H&R Block or a do-it-yourself app, and they have a huge tax bill and they don’t know why they have it. They don’t know even how it came about.
...more hands on than previous tax accountants and they are helpful with my tax planning.
Held more than a year, the gain is long-term and taxed at 0, 15, or 20 percent for the 2026 tax year. Held a year or less, it is taxed as ordinary income.
The gain stacks on your other income, so the same gain can fall partly in the 15 percent band and partly in the 20 percent band.
Depreciation taken while it was a rental is recaptured at up to 25 percent, separate from the rest of the gain.
Your taxable gain is the sale price minus your adjusted basis. Basis is not just what you paid: it includes capital improvements and many closing and selling costs. Owners who never tracked a new roof, an addition, or a renovation overstate their gain and overpay. Reconstructing basis before filing often lowers the bill more than anything else.
Your fee depends on the work involved, not hours billed. Three things move it:
To get a quote, tell us what you paid, how the property was used, and what it sold for. The fee comes back in writing before any work begins.
Four inputs decide it: what you paid, what it sold for, how the property was used, and the improvement records you kept. From those we give you the taxable gain, the exclusions that actually apply, and the rate on each slice. The review is run by a CPA, and the aim is the smallest defensible number.
