Comment on This boomer couple would be hit with $700,000 tax bill if they sold their mansion
jj4211@lemmy.world 3 weeks agoEven if you use the proceeds to immediately buy another house, you still have to pay the tax, unless you are a landlord then you get a tax break, because we must protect those landlords but not private homeowners…
So you may be at a 15% or so disadvantage looking for a new place to live if you wanted to sell your property and move.
CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Booo fucking hoo. If you’re sitting on 500k+ in gains after downsizing then eat it and pay the tax. I’ll play a sad violin story for the top 2% in the richest nation in the world.
jj4211@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
As a private homeowner you want to trade your $500k house to move near an adult child after your spouse dies. With the housing markets being equal, you end up owing a ton of capital gains tax but having to spend more just to try to keep even.
Or, as the tax code seems to want to encourage, the private homeowner becomes a landlord because that at least might let them keep pace with a new mortgage they have to take on.
It’s crazy that we give tax advantage to landlords and deny them to people actually using their houses.