Principal Residence Exemption

When a principal residence is sold, the gain is not taxable if it has been the person's principal residence for the whole time it has been owned.

This is because the principal residence exemption eliminates the capital gain.

In this case, there is no need to report the sale on your tax return.A taxpayer and spouse may only designate one principal residence between them for each tax year after 1981. For years prior to 1982, each individual taxpayer can designate one principal residence, so if a couple has owned both a primary home and a cottage for decades, the principal residence exemption is available for both homes for the years prior to 1982.

The increase in value of the home from time of purchase is used to calculate the gain before deducting the principal residence exemption. If a home has been owned since before 1972, only the increase in value since December 31, 1971 is used to calculate the gain before deducting the principal residence exemption. Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) usually considers that if there is more than 1/2 hectare (1.25 acres) of property, only 1/2 hectare of the land can be considered part of the principal residence, and there would be a capital gain on the excess when the property is sold, even if the rest is the principal residence.

However, they also consider whether the property is subdividable. Thus, if the property is 2 hectares, and is not subdividable, they may consider the whole amount of the land to be part of the principal residence.If your home was not your principal residence for the whole time that you owned it, you will have to report the sale on your tax return, and calculate the principal residence exemption to deduct from your capital gain.

The principal residence exemption calculation is:(# of years home is principal residence + 1) x capital gain
# of years home is owned

The extra year in the top of the equation means that when a person moves, both the old home and the new home will be treated as a principal residence in the year of the move, even though only one of them can actually be designated as such for that year.Example of principal residence exemption:taxpayer has owned their home for 20 yearsit has been their principal residence for only 14 yearsthe capital gain before the exemption is $100,000The exemption amount is (14 + 1)/20 x 100,000 = $75,000, leaving a capital gain of $25,000, and a taxable capital gain (50%) of $12,500.If you have both a home and a cottage, and sell one of them at a profit, you must make a decision as to whether to designate the sold property as your principal residence for some or all of the years it was owned. If you sell a cottage that you have owned for 10 years, you could designate the cottage as your principal residence for the entire 10 years in order to eliminate capital gains tax, as long as you have not designated any other property as your principal residence during that time.This would mean that when you sell your home you will likely be paying capital gains tax, as you cannot also designate the home as your principal residence for those 10 years. If you have a significant gain so far on your home but a small gain on the sale of the cottage, it might be best to save the exemption for the sale of your home.If you had sold a previous home at a gain say 4 years prior to selling the cottage, and did not declare the sale for capital gains purposes, then you can only claim the cottage as your principal residence for a maximum of 4 years. This is because you were deemed to have claimed the principal residence exemption when you sold the previous home.

See also our article regarding a change in use of your home from principal residence to income producing, or from income producing to principal residence. How you do things may affect whether or not you have to report a capital gain.

Canada Revenue Agency Resources:Principal residence and other real estateThe following income tax folio was published on March 28, 2013 in consultation format to allow for feedback from the tax community. It will be available until June 28, 2013: S1-F3-C2: Principal Residence

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2 Comments to Principal Residence Exemption:

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house for sale on December-20-13 2:12 AM

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