[sokoloff]

> It's not that hard to get into a >99% income bracket for a year or two.

The 99th percentile threshold for household income in 2023 was "only" $591,550.

A two-earner couple who sells a house beyond the exclusion amount (or is not eligible for the exclusion) would pretty readily brush into the 99th percentile for that year. (Many zero-earner couples would get there just from a house sale.)

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the "one year" 99th percentile folks were there just from a house sale and then someone else takes that spot in subsequent years.

[anonymouskimmer]

Are primary residence sales, which typically involve moving to another residence, considered "income" for the purposes discussed here? If they are, based on what I'm reading elsewhere, this would only be relative to the capital gains on the sale price relative to the purchase price.

[sokoloff]

Capital gains (for primary houses, those gains above the exclusion amount) contribute towards AGI (adjusted gross income), the best single summary line of income on the return.

[anonymouskimmer]

Sure, gains above both the exclusion amount and the purchase price. But even when added to other sources of income that's going to yield a 1% income for very few people.

[sokoloff]

It will obviously be less than 1% of people overall.

Among the “got into the top 1% once” group, I think it’s possibly a majority of those cases.

Capital gains are roughly “net sales price minus basis”. Whatever the mortgage was has no bearing on it. (Someone who pays down their mortgage aggressively will not have more gains by that action, nor will someone who continually refi’s with cash-out have fewer gains.)

Edit: parent edited their comment to remove a question about how gains are calculated and how that interacted with mortgage payoff.

[anonymouskimmer]

Quite likely.

> Whatever the mortgage was has no bearing on it.

Yeah, I realized that and deleted my edit.

Editing a third time to point out that we're editing back and forth in real time. Your edit on the mortgage didn't exist at the time I deleted my edit about it. :)

Edit: And for those calculating all of this out to determine what percent of the population does fall into the top 1% from a home sale:

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc701

: If you have a capital gain from the sale of your main home, you may qualify to exclude up to $250,000 of that gain from your income, or up to $500,000 of that gain if you file a joint return with your spouse.