# real estate capital gain exemption: return to France, secondary home sale to purchase main residence



## Itachi_Uchiha (9 mo ago)

Hello, I am looking for help to find out if I can benefit from the exemption of the capital gain on real estate

Here is our situation:
My wife and I are French citizens
Lived in the United States for 10 years, between 2013 and 2022.
Owner of our main residence from 2018 to 2022 in the US
Main residence in the US sold before our permanent return to France

Today back in France where we own an apartment, acquired before our departure to the US
We are going to sell this apartment which until now has been rented - so it has not been our main residence since 2013
Planning to re-use the entire sale amount to buy our main residence in France

Here is the information found on the internet:
The exemption of the capital gain realized on the first sale of property other than the principal residence applies in the following cases:

not having owned a principal residence in the past 4 years;
reinvest the total amount of the sale in another property within 24 months. If your reinvestment is partial, your exemption will be proportional: if you devote 60% of the amount of the sale to a new acquisition, you will be exempted up to 60% on your real estate capital gain;

Can we be exempt from real estate capital gains? We have not owned a principal residence in France for the past 4 years. We did in the US but not in France

Thanks so much for your help.


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## Itachi_Uchiha (9 mo ago)

Hi, for those in a similar situation, here is what is likely going to happen

The request has been forwarded to another specific real estate tax service located where the apartment is. 

This is specifically a "demande de rescrit " which essentially is a special request to help translating a legal text. It applies to cases where the text laws are not specific enough and may be subject to various interpretations

In our case, a very material outcome of potentially 20K EUROS of capital gain taxes (ouch)

The whole process can take up to 3 months

Hope this helps

Take care all


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