Q: We purchased our home in January 2005 for $240,000, but now we are planning to move again later this year. If we net about $50,000 from the sale, would we owe taxes on the profit because we haven’t lived in the home for two of the past five years?

A: As you probably already know, married couples can keep up to $500,000 of their home-sale profit tax-free (singles can keep up to $250,000) provided that the property served as their primary residence for at least two of the previous five years. You don’t meet the two-out-of-five requirement, so you may – with the emphasis on “may” – owe taxes on some or all of your resale gain.

Whether you owe taxes largely will depend on the reason for your upcoming move. You certainly would be eligible for a tax-saving “partial exclusion” if you or your spouse is taking a new job that’s at least 50 miles farther from your old home than the old job was. You’re also eligible if the move is related to your health, or the health of a relative who is in your care.

The Internal Revenue Service also grants partial exclusions to sellers who don’t meet the two-of-five rule if the sale is related to a death, divorce, multiple births from the same pregnancy or the loss of a job (provided that the job loss results in the seller becoming eligible for unemployment compensation).

Sales triggered by a natural disaster or an act of war or terrorism are eligible, too. For a complete list, order IRS Publication No. 523, “Selling Your Home,” by contacting the agency at (800) 829-1040, or download the document from www.irs.gov.

If you qualify for a partial exclusion, the amount of profit you can keep tax-free will be based on the number of months that you lived in the house. Using your example, if you moved into the property in January 2005 and sold it today, you and your spouse would be eligible for 58 percent (14 months out of 24) of the standard $500,000 tax-free limit.

Because 58 percent of $500,000 is $290,000, you could keep up to $290,000 in profit tax-free even though the sale occurred only 14 months after you moved in. The $50,000 profit you expect to make is well below $290,000, so no money would be owed to the IRS.

If you do not qualify for a partial exclusion, capital-gains taxes will be owed on the full $50,000 profit. You have held the property for more than a year, so the profit would probably be taxed at the long-term capital gains rate of 15 percent. Had you sold in less than a year, you would pay taxes based on your individual (and probably higher) rate.

We’re talking about a lot of money here, so it’s important to consult an accountant before you put the home up for sale.

¢ David W. Myers is a 20-year veteran of the newspaper and magazine business, having previously covered real estate for the Los Angeles Times and Investor’s Business Daily.