Calculator·Assumptions checked September 11, 2026
Federal and Utah tax on the gain from selling your house, after the primary residence exclusion, across a low, expected, and high sale price.
Not sure what it would sell for? Start with a free range.
Check my home’s value →Estimated tax on the sale
$0
$0 low · $0 high
The $500,000 exclusion covers the whole $299,700 gain at the expected price.
Columns are sale price scenarios: the low end of your range, the expected price, and the high end. Everything else holds still.
| Line | Low $589K | Expected $620K | High $651K |
|---|---|---|---|
| The gain | |||
| Sale price | $589,000 | $620,000 | $651,000 |
| Selling costs6.5% of the price. | $38,285 | $40,300 | $42,315 |
| Amount realized | $550,715 | $579,700 | $608,685 |
| Adjusted basisPurchase price plus purchase costs and improvements, less depreciation. | $280,000 | $280,000 | $280,000 |
| Gain on the sale | $270,715 | $299,700 | $328,685 |
| What's excluded | |||
| Primary residence exclusionUp to $500,000 for your filing status and time in the home. | $270,715 | $299,700 | $328,685 |
| Taxable gain | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Tax | |||
| Federal capital gains taxLong term rates of 0%, 15%, and 20%, stacked on $57,800 of other taxable income. | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Utah income taxFlat 4.45% on the taxable part. | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Estimated tax on the sale | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Left after selling costs and taxBefore paying off any mortgage. | $550,715 | $579,700 | $608,685 |
The sale price drives every row above, and in a nondisclosure state it’s the number hardest to pin down. Get a free value range for your address →
2026 federal brackets and the Utah rate for tax years beginning in 2026. Assumes no other capital gains or losses this year, the standard deduction, and no nonqualified use after 2008. An accountant is worth the fee on anything near the exclusion line. Not tax advice.
The gain is what you got minus what you had in it. What you got is the sale price less commissions and closing costs. What you had in it, your basis, is the purchase price plus the closing costs you paid then plus every capital improvement since, less any depreciation you claimed. If the home was your main residence for two of the last five years, $250,000 of the gain is excluded, or $500,000 on a joint return. What’s left is stacked on top of your other income and taxed at the long term federal rates, plus the 3.8% net investment income tax if your total income crosses its line, plus Utah’s flat rate.
The three columns are sale price scenarios, because the price is the input a St. George seller can least pin down, and every other row moves with it. With the range fields blank, they sit 5% either side of your expected price. If you came here from an estimate, the columns are that estimate’s range.
You need to have owned the home and lived in it as your main residence for at least 24 months of the five years before closing. The months don’t have to be consecutive, you can use the exclusion once every two years, and you don’t have to buy another home. Sell early for a job move, a health reason, or an unforeseen event and you get a prorated share: 12 months of use earns half. A surviving spouse keeps the full $500,000 if the sale closes within two years of the death. A snowbird condo you never lived in full time gets nothing.
Two rules the calculator doesn’t model: depreciation you claimed after May 1997 can never be excluded (it’s handled as recapture instead), and years the home was a rental after 2008, before you moved back in, reduce the exclusion in proportion. If either applies, the number here is a floor, not a ceiling.
Long term gains are taxed at 0%, 15%, or 20% depending on where they land once stacked on your other taxable income, which is your other income less the standard deduction. The thresholds below are the IRS inflation adjusted figures for tax years beginning in 2026.
| Filing status | 0% up to | 15% up to | Standard deduction | 3.8% NIIT above |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single | $49,450 | $545,500 | $16,100 | $200,000 |
| Married filing jointly | $98,900 | $613,700 | $32,200 | $250,000 |
| Head of household | $66,200 | $579,600 | $24,150 | $200,000 |
| Married filing separately | $49,450 | $306,850 | $16,100 | $125,000 |
The net investment income tax thresholds aren’t indexed and haven’t moved since 2013, which is why a retired couple with modest income can still trip it in the one year they sell a house with a large taxable gain. Gain the exclusion covers doesn’t count toward it.
Utah starts from your federal adjusted gross income, so gain the federal exclusion removes never reaches the state return. Gain above it is ordinary income at the flat rate, which is 4.45% for tax years beginning in 2026 after the legislature trimmed it from 4.5% this spring, the sixth cut in six years. There’s no reduced state rate for long term gains and no estate or inheritance tax on the other end. Utah does offer a capital gains credit for reinvesting in a small Utah business, but it doesn’t apply to a home sale.
Depreciation you claimed lowers your basis, so it comes back as gain, and that slice is taxed at your ordinary rate up to a 25% cap rather than at the capital gains rates. Enter the total from your returns in the depreciation field and the calculator separates it out. A rental you never lived in gets no exclusion at all; a 1031 exchange into another investment property can defer the whole bill, but that’s a different calculation and a different deadline clock.
In most states your purchase price is on the recorded deed. In Utah it isn’t, so your basis lives in the settlement statement from your closing and the receipts and permits for the roof, the casita, the kitchen. Start looking before you list. The title company that closed your purchase may still have the file.
Other capital gains or losses in the same year, which share the brackets. Itemized deductions, the alternative minimum tax, and Utah’s taxpayer credit phaseout, which nudges the effective state rate for some filers. Installment sales. The nonqualified use allocation for a home that was a rental before it was your residence. If any of that applies, take the number here as a starting point for the conversation with your accountant, not the end of it.
The gain is the sale price minus what you have in the house. A free range for your specific St. George address is the half of that you can't look up.
Get the sale price side of the math