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The Daily Insight

Can a married couple claim 2 primary residences?

Author

Henry Morales

Published Mar 27, 2026

The IRS is very clear that taxpayers, including married couples, have only one primary residence—which the agency refers to as the “main home.” Your main home is always the residence where you ordinarily live most of the time. There are, however, tax deductions the IRS offers that cover the expenses on up to two homes.

Can husband and wife have different residency?

Many taxpayers are surprised to learn California even allows separate residency status for spouses. But in fact, there is no such thing as “marital” residency. Residency status always belongs to an individual, whether married or not.

Where do spouses separately sell houses in the year they get?

Where spouses separately sell houses in the year they get married (or immediately after for a December wedding), how do capital gains exclusions work? How should we file? My fiance and I are getting married in December and are building a house set to close next spring. He owned a townhouse that he sold back in March of this year.

Do you have to have primary residency to sell your house?

In order for the sale to be exempt, the home must be considered a primary residency based on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rules. These rules state that you must have occupied the residence for at least two of the last five years.

Can a spouse sell a house if they are not married?

If either spouse does not satisfy all these requirements, the exclusion is figured separately for each spouse as if they were not married. This means they can each qualify for up to a $250,000 exclusion. For this purpose, each spouse is treated as owning the property during the period that either spouse owned the property.

How much can you exclude from capital gains on sale of primary home?

Taxpayers can exclude up to $250,000 in capital gains on the sale of their primary residences, or up to $500,000 if they’re married and file a joint return, as of October 2020. 1. This special tax treatment is known as the Section 121 exclusion.