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When you sell your home and make a sizable profit, you’re likely required to pay capital gains tax. But U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is aiming to change that.
Greene recently introduced the “No Tax on Home Sales Act,” a bill that would eliminate federal capital gains tax on the sale of primary residences.
“Families who work hard, build equity, and sell their homes should not be punished with massive tax bills,” Greene said in a recent press release. “The capital gains tax on home sales is an outdated, unfair burden — especially in today’s housing market, where values have skyrocketed. My bill fixes that.”
Currently, if you sell your primary home with a capital gain, the IRS allows you to exclude up to $250,000 ($500,000 for joint filers) from your taxable income. But that exclusion was set back in 1997 — when home prices were substantially lower.
A recent analysis by the National Association of Realtors estimates that about one in three homeowners — roughly 29 million households — have accumulated more equity than the federal capital gains tax exclusion allows for single filers.
Greene told Realtor.com she believes the bill would be “a great gift for the American people.”
Although the proposal is still in its early stages, it has already caught the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump.
“We’re looking at that,” Trump recently told reporters at Joint Base Andrews. “It could be a very big positive. I think it’s going to be a great incentive for a lot of people that really need money.”
Soaring home prices in recent years have made it substantially harder for prospective buyers to get a foot on the ladder.
In just the last five years, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index has climbed by more than 50%. And a recent Bankrate study found that to afford a typical home in the U.S., a household would now need an annual income exceeding $116,000.
Many experts say a lack of supply is the root cause. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell highlighted this last year at a press conference, remarking, “The real issue with housing is that we have had and are on track to continue to have, not enough housing.” He also pointed to the difficulty of finding and zoning land in desirable areas, asking, “Where are we going to get the supply?”
