What Kind of Taxes Impact a Real Estate Transaction?

The capital gains tax and property taxes both have a large impact on real estate transactions. Here’s what you need to know about them.

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When it comes to a real estate transaction, there are two major types of taxes you need to know about: the capital gains tax and property taxes. A capital gains tax is levied on the profit you receive from selling a property, while property taxes are based on the value of the property itself. 

People often assume if they’re selling their house and that house is their primary residence that they’ll have to buy a new house to avoid getting taxed, so here’s how each tax applies to a real estate transaction and how you can take advantage of them.

Regarding the capital gains tax, if you have lived in a house you’re selling for two out of the last five years, the IRS considers that house your primary residence. If you’re a single person and have a gain of up to $250,000 on your sale, that $250,000 sum is tax-free. Anything above that and you will have to pay whatever your capital gains tax rate is. If you’re married, you can keep up to $500,000 of your capital gain on the sale.

If you’re afraid of moving because of how taxes will impact you, don’t be.

When it comes to property taxes, we have many people living in our area who’ve lived in their house for a long time who don’t want to move because they don’t want to lose their low tax base.

For example, let’s say you paid $200,000 for your house and the property tax was 1% per year, which means you paid roughly $2,000 a year. If you want to sell the house now for $1.5 million and buy your next house for $1.6 million, your new property tax will be based on that $1.6 million price tag. That means you’d go from paying $2,000 a year to paying $16,000 a year.

There is a solution for this dilemma, and it’s called Proposition 60. This proposition allows you to move your tax base to another property. If you sell for $1.5 million and you buy another house of equal or less value, you can simply transfer that tax base and continue paying $2,000 a year.

The primary purpose of this proposition is to allow couples who’ve lived in their house for a long time and don’t have kids around anymore to sell that house and buy a smaller one without getting burdened with a higher property tax.

If you have any questions about these two types of taxes or are looking to buy or sell a house, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you!