SmartAsset and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below. When you sell your primary home, the IRS allows you to exclude a significant portion of the profit from your taxes. This exclusion – $250,000 for single filers and $500,000 for married, joint filers – is large enough that many sellers don’t end up paying federal taxes on the capital gains from a home sale. But if you’re netting $620,000 from the sale of your house as you downsize for retirement, you will p ...