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I’m selling my home. My boss told me that if my profit is less than $250,000 I don’t have to pay taxes, is that true?

In order to encourage homeownership, the IRS has set up a capital gains exemption on primary residences.

This exemption is up to $250K per taxpayer, so it works out to $500K per married couple.

And unlike the old system, which you may remember from decades ago, you don’t have to buy a new property to get the tax exemption.

You do, however, need to have had the property as your principal residence for two out of the last five years.

It’s complicated enough (and there’s enough money involved) that you really should check with an accountant. For a little more information though, check out IRS publication 523, a pdf file which you can get by clicking here