Special Situations(p28)

The situations that follow may affect your exclusion.

You cannot claim the exclusion if:

• You acquired your home in a like-kind exchange (also known as a section 1031 exchange), or your basis in your home is determined by reference to the basis of the home in the hands of the person who acquired the property in a like-kind exchange (for example, you received the home from that person as a gift), and
• You sold the home during the 5-year period beginning with the date your home was acquired in the like-kind exchange.

Gain from a like-kind exchange is not taxable at the time of the exchange. This means that gain will not be taxed until you sell or otherwise dispose of the property you receive. To defer gain from a like-kind exchange, you must have exchanged business or investment property for business or investment property of a like kind. For more information about like-kind exchanges, see Publication 544, Sales and Other Dispositions of Assets.

The same tests that apply to determine if you qualify to exclude gain from the sale of your main home (discussed earlier) also apply to determine if you qualify to exclude gain from the exchange of your main home for another property. Under certain circumstances, you may meet the requirements for both the exclusion of gain from the exchange of a main home and the nonrecognition of gain from a like-kind exchange (discussed above under Sale of home acquired in a like-kind exchange). This can occur if you used your property as your main home for a period before the exchange that meets the use test, but at the time of the exchange, you used your home for business or rental purposes. This can also occur if you used your main home partly for business or rental purposes and then exchanged the home. In these situations, you would first exclude the gain from the sale of your main home to the extent allowable, and then apply the nonrecognition of gain provisions of section 1031 for like-kind exchanges to defer any remaining gain. For more information, see Revenue Procedure 2005-14, 2005-7 I.R.B. 528, available at www.irs.gov/irb/2005-07_IRB/ar10.html.

You cannot claim the exclusion if the expatriation tax applies to you. The expatriation tax applies to certain U.S. citizens who have renounced their citizenship (and to certain long-term residents who have ended their residency). For more information about the expatriation tax, see chapter 4 of Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens.

If your home was destroyed or condemned, any gain (for example, because of insurance proceeds you received) qualifies for the exclusion.

Any part of the gain that cannot be excluded (because it is more than the maximum exclusion) can be postponed under the rules explained in:

• Publication 547, in the case of a home that was destroyed, or
• Publication 544, chapter 1, in the case of a home that was condemned.

Subject to the other rules in this publication, you can choose to exclude gain from the sale of a remainder interest in your home. If you make this choice, you cannot choose to exclude gain from your sale of any other interest in the home that you sell separately.

You cannot exclude gain from the sale of a remainder interest in your home to a related person. Related persons include your brothers, sisters, half-brothers, half-sisters, spouse, ancestors (parents, grandparents, etc.), and lineal descendants (children, grandchildren, etc.). Related persons also include certain corporations, partnerships, trusts, and exempt organizations.