121 section

Hello All,

i soooo want to help my client claim the exclusion on the gain from the sale of her home but it just doesn't seem that it will be possible.... Can anybody see a way?

Timeline
Jan. 2010 - taxpayer buys house in California
Jan, 2011 - taxpayer starts working and living overseas (Dubai)
Jan, 2011-Jan 2015 - taxpayer's dependents living in CA home while taxpayer lives/works in Dubai
Jan, 2015 - house is rented
Jan, 2018 - tenants vacate, taxpayer's dependents return to house to ready it for sale
April 2018 home is sold

1st line of reasoning: Can taxpayer claim (partial or full) exclusion if only dependents are living in home while she lives overseas?

2nd line of reasoning: If a job change is an exception to the 2 out of 5 rule, can this taxpayer claim the exclusion given that she was out of the house seven years before the house was sold?

thanks,
deb

Any chance 121(b)(5)(C)(ii)(II) would apply to your client?

Howard, Alas, no, but thanks for the suggestion.

To clarify... here's why I think there is NOTHING I can do for this client:

* She moved away to take another job more than 7 years before she sold the property.

* The dependents spent time at the home but did not officially live there.

Does anybody see this another way?

Deb

Nice suggestion Howard. Deb, I'm scratching my head trying to come up with something here, but typically in the PLRs I've read, the "unforeseen circumstance" is usually an event/circumstance that forces the sale of the property prematurely. I really wish they waited to sell for goodness sakes!!!

But, I get it, strike while the iron is hot, or just before there might be a housing/economy collapse!!

* The dependents spent time at the home but did not officially live there.

I'm not sure that matters. What matters is that it wasn't the taxpayer's principal residence...presumably she established residence at her assignment, even if only by being there.

i soooo want to help my client claim the exclusion on the gain from the sale of her home

But it wasn't her home, so why shouldn't she pay tax on the gain?