Tax Yap · Guillemaud Law Boutique P.C.
Before You Sell
Your Primary HomeThe tax questions that matter.
A 32-page plain-language guide to the tax consequences of selling your home — written by a California attorney and Enrolled Agent, for homeowners anywhere in the United States.
Tax Yap
Before You Sell
Your Primary Home
Gain · Basis · The $250,000 Exclusion
Inherited & Gifted Homes · Trusts
Divorce · Primary Turned Rental · 1099-S
Why this exists
Selling for more than you paid
does not automatically mean a tax bill.
But it is also not as simple as “I lived there two years, so it is tax free.” Your actual result can turn on your adjusted basis, capital improvements, how you acquired the property, whether it was ever rented or used for business, depreciation, how title is held, whether the home sits in a trust, and whether a spouse or another owner died.
Most people learn which of those applied to them after closing — when the planning options are already gone. This guide is the version you read first.
Who it is for
Written for the sale you are actually having.
Homeowners listing soon
You want to know the number before you sign, not in April. Includes a fill-in worksheet you can bring to your own tax preparer.
Inherited, gifted, trust & survivor sales
Basis adjustments at death, community property, carryover basis, revocable versus irrevocable trusts, and the two-year surviving-spouse window.
Homes that were once rented
Primary turned rental, rental turned primary, home-office depreciation, and the nonqualified-use rule that quietly reduces the exclusion.
Contents
Twenty-three sections, one per question.
One idea per page, in plain language, with the authorities listed at the back so you can check any of it yourself.
Practical notes, where the rule bites.
Throughout the guide, the traps are called out on the page where they apply — the exclusion that is not inherited with the house, the withholding that is not the tax, the two limitations that are not the same limitation.
And the part I would tell you on the phone.
Every section ends with the practical instruction — get the appraisal, calendar the date, keep the receipt, call before you sign. Plain advice, in my actual voice.
Your author
Tiffany Guillemaud
Esq., EA · Guillemaud Law Boutique P.C.
I am a California attorney and Enrolled Agent. My practice is tax planning and controversy, estate planning and trusts, and business entities — which means I spend a great deal of time explaining to people what the sale of a house is about to do to them, and occasionally what it already did.
This guide is the explanation I give most often, organized so you can find your own fact pattern. It addresses federal income tax concepts and is written for homeowners nationwide; state treatment varies and is flagged where it matters.
Reading this guide does not create an attorney-client relationship. See the full disclaimer below.
Get the guide
$39. Read it before you list.
Instant PDF download, delivered immediately after checkout. Yours to keep, licensed for your personal use.
- 32-page designed PDF, print-ready
- 23 sections covering the common fact patterns
- Fill-in gain worksheet, lines A through M
- One-page quick reference you can hand your preparer
- Before-you-sell checklist and records list
- Authorities and further reading, with citations
Questions
Before you buy.
Is this legal or tax advice?
No. It is general education about federal income tax concepts. It is not advice about your facts, and buying or reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Does it only apply in California?
No. The guide is written for homeowners nationwide and addresses federal concepts. State treatment varies, and the guide flags where your state can change the result.
I already sold. Is it too late to be useful?
The planning sections are most valuable before closing, but the basis, depreciation, worksheet, records and 1099-S sections are all written to help you report a sale that has already happened.
Do I need a tax background to read it?
No. It is written in plain language, one idea per page. Where a term matters — adjusted basis, nonqualified use — it gets its own definition.
Can I work with you directly?
Yes. The guide includes a booking link for a strategic tax planning consultation, and tells you which fact patterns are worth a call.
What is your refund policy?
Because this is an instantly delivered digital download, all sales are final.