Trump officials float cut to capital gains tax on home sales. What it could mean for homeowners

Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett speaks to reporters outside of the White House in Washington, on Aug. 7, 2026.

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A tax break for Americans selling their primary residence could become part of the Trump administration's midterm pitch. But experts say such an effort is unlikely to happen quickly — and the benefits would skew to wealthier homeowners.

In a conversation on Fox Business on Tuesday, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and host Larry Kudlow, who led the council during Trump's first term, said the White House may propose new tax breaks in the lead-up to the midterm elections.

Kudlow said he'd spoken to President Donald Trump about indexing capital gains to inflation, as well as making changes to capital gains taxes on home sales that would shield more of homeowners' profits from taxes. He said Trump was "very interested" in those ideas.

"These are not necessarily rich people," Kudlow said. "These are empty nesters who own a house for 30 or 40 [years], but they shouldn't have to pay the Biden inflation tax."

A change to the home sale capital gains exclusion would require action from Congress, and it's unclear how interested the administration is in pursuing the idea.

"President Trump is always exploring new ideas to Make America Wealthy Again, but any policy announcements will come from the Administration directly," White House spokesman Kush Desai told CNBC in an emailed statement.

Changes to the tax law ahead of the midterm elections are also "extremely unlikely," given the tight time frame, said Jude Boudreaux, a certified financial planner and partner and senior financial planner with The Planning Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

"Just based on how difficult it seems to be to get any legislation passed recently," said Boudreaux.

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The comments from Hassett and Kudlow follow other recent efforts from lawmakers to reduce or eliminate capital gains on home sales.

Earlier this year, Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Tim Scott, R-S.C., sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, asking him to reduce capital gains taxes by indexing a home's basis with inflation.

Several bills in Congress have also sought to address the issue. A bipartisan, bicameral proposal from early 2025, the More Homes on the Market Act, would double the capital gains exemptions for primary home sales profits and adjust those figures annually for inflation. Meanwhile, the No Tax on Homes Sales Act, introduced by former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., in mid-2025, would eliminate capital gains taxes on the sale of primary residences. Those bills remain in committee.

Trump has himself also raised the idea of an end to capital gains tax on home sales.

How capital gains taxes on home sales work

Under current law, sellers generally pay capital gains tax on the difference between a home's adjusted basis and its sales price.

Homeowners selling a primary residence who meet certain IRS conditions can qualify for a tax break, known as the Section 121 exclusion, that shields up to $250,000 of profits for single filers and $500,000 for married couples filing jointly. Home sale profits above the threshold are subject to long-term capital gains taxes of 0%, 15% or 20%, depending on the seller's taxable income.

Increasing the exemption may not impact many households.

In 2022, just around 10% of homeowners had gains exceeding the current exemption, according to The Budget Lab at Yale — and those homeowners had an average net worth of roughly $5.7 million.

Roughly 1 in 3 homeowners — nearly 29 million households — have built up more equity than the federal capital gains tax exclusion for single filers, $250,000, according to a 2025 analysis by the National Association of Realtors. The group expects that number to grow to 56% of homeowners by 2030.

"Most middle- and lower-income people are not impacted by the exclusion rate, and most do not have investments that would incur capital gains taxes," said Certified Financial Planner Carolyn McClanahan, founder of Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, Florida.

"Floating more tax cuts when the government is spending like crazy isn't a good move," McClanahan added.

However, the $250,000 and $500,000 exclusion thresholds haven't changed since 1997, said Douglas Boneparth, a certified financial planner and the president of Bone Fide Wealth in New York.

"Raising the cap there isn't a giveaway because it's catching up to reality," Boneparth said.

Boneparth, Boudreaux and McClanahan are all members of the CNBC Financial Advisor Council.

Reporting from CNBC contributed to this story.