If you own a home and are considering selling it, knowing and preparing for what taxes you may owe is critical.

There's even a legitimate way to pay less capital gains or even skip them all together if you follow some simple rules that I'm going to review in today's show.

Welcome back, everyone. This is episode 928 of Money Girl. I really appreciate you spending some time with me.

I'm Laura Adams, an award-winning author, spokesperson, money speaker, and founder of the Money Stack.

That's my sub-stack newsletter. I've been bringing you personal

finance tips and advice weekly on this podcast since 2008 with over 44 million downloads.

You can learn more, ask questions, and sign up for the money stack at laura d adams.com.

And newsletter subscribers automatically receive my money success toolkit with the exact

templates I use to manage money. So I hope you'll take advantage of that. Again, I really appreciate

you spending time with me. Maybe you're taking a walk or doing things around the house where I am down

in Florida. It's starting to feel like summer. It is really warm.

So I'm trying to do all my outdoor things really early in the morning. But wherever you're

listening to the show, thank you. So let's talk about the capital gains tax. You probably know

that you have to pay tax when you earn money from a job or from a business or even

when you earn interest from a bank account. That type of tax is called ordinary income tax,

and it ranges from 10% up to 37% for 2025 and what you pay depends on your income and your tax filing status, such as whether

you file taxes as a single person or you file jointly as a married couple. However, you do have to

pay a different tax, which is called the capital gains tax, when you sell certain assets for a

profit. For example, if you sell a capital asset,

and that might include stocks, exchange traded funds, or real estate, for more than you paid for the

asset, you have a taxable capital gain. And the tax rate for capital gains depends on how long you have owned the asset

that you sell. It also depends on your income and your tax filing status, and I'll talk more

...