Do I owe taxes for selling my home in Texas after less than a year of ownership?

This definitely doesn't sound right based on what you're describing. The good news is you probably don't owe anywhere near that amount. Here's why: When you sell your primary residence, you may qualify for a capital gains exclusion of up to $250,000 for single filers (or $500,000 for married filing jointly). The catch is that you typically need to have owned and lived in the home as your primary residence for at least 2 out of the 5 years before selling. However, there are special circumstances where you can get a partial exclusion even if you don't meet the 2-year requirement. A divorce is actually one of those qualifying circumstances! Since your home sale was due to a divorce, you likely qualify for a partial exclusion based on the fraction of the 2 years that you lived there (10 months/24 months). The other thing to check is if TurboTax is correctly calculating your actual gain. From what you've described, your gain was minimal after accounting for selling expenses. Make sure TurboTax is including all your closing costs, selling expenses, and any improvements you made to the property.

After reading your situation, I had almost the exact same issue last year. I was getting absolutely ridiculous tax estimates using online software. I tried https://taxr.ai and it was a game changer for me. The system analyzed all my home sale documents and correctly identified that I qualified for a partial exclusion due to unforeseen circumstances (in my case, a job relocation). The software walked me through exactly what forms I needed and how to properly report the sale with the partial exclusion. It also made sure all my closing costs and improvements to the home were properly factored in. I went from thinking I owed over $30k to actually owing nothing. Not saying your situation will be identical, but it sounds very similar to what I experienced.

Just wanted to follow up! I ended up trying taxr.ai after seeing this thread, and wow - huge difference! I uploaded my closing documents from both the purchase and sale of my home, and it correctly identified my partial exclusion for the 18-month sale. The system walked me through exactly how the partial exclusion works with my unforeseen circumstances exception. The biggest revelation was finding out I had completely forgotten to include about $12k in home improvements that increased my basis! Between getting the partial exclusion right and correcting my basis, my tax bill went from over $23k to just under $3k. The step-by-step guidance on exactly which IRS rules applied to my situation was incredibly helpful. Thanks for recommending this!

OP, I had a somewhat similar situation last year and spent WEEKS trying to get through to the IRS to confirm how to handle my partial exclusion. Calling the regular IRS number was a complete nightmare - always busy or disconnected after waiting for an hour. I finally used https://claimyr.com to get through to an actual IRS agent (there's a demo of how it works at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c if you're curious). They secured my spot in the phone queue without me having to sit there redialing constantly. When I finally got to speak with an actual IRS agent, they confirmed I qualified for the partial exclusion and walked me through exactly how to claim it. Given how much money is potentially at stake here ($50k!), it might be worth getting official clarification directly from the IRS instead of just hoping the software is handling everything correctly.

I was dead set against using any kind of service to contact the IRS - seemed like a complete waste of money. But after trying for THREE DAYS to get through on my own (kept getting disconnected after 1+ hour waits), I broke down and tried Claimyr. I'm honestly shocked at how well it worked. Got connected to an IRS agent within about 45 minutes of signing up. The agent confirmed I qualified for a partial exclusion due to unforeseen circumstances and explained exactly how to report it on my return. They even emailed me the relevant tax form instructions. What really surprised me was that the IRS agent told me that my tax software had been calculating my basis incorrectly - I needed to include not just the purchase price but also certain closing costs from when I bought the house. This reduced my gain significantly. So yeah, I was wrong - sometimes it's worth paying a bit to save thousands. Sorry for being so skeptical earlier.

Have you considered that maybe your ex entered something on their return that's causing issues with yours? When my ex and I sold our house post-divorce, he claimed the entire capital gain exclusion on his return before I filed mine. This caused a huge headache because the IRS flagged my return when I also claimed my portion of the exclusion. Might be worth checking if your ex has already filed and how they reported the sale.

Quick question - did you make any significant improvements to the house during those 10 months? Things like renovating a bathroom, upgrading the kitchen, adding a deck? Those costs get added to your basis and reduce your taxable gain. A lot of people forget to include these when calculating their home sale profits.