define first time home buyer

your having made money, lost money or broken even on a sale of a home has no bearing on whether or not you're a first time homebuyer. if you have owned a home in the previous 3 years, you are not a first time homebuyer.

I am in the military and I bought my first home in 1998 in Atlanta Ga, I transfered to Jacksonville FL where I rented a house until I bought my newly constructed home in Feb 2009. I sold my house in Atlanta in Nov 2008. Do I qualify for the $8000 first time home buyer tax credit?

Hi GregStew,

The first time home buyer is defined as someone who has not owned a primary residence for the past 3 years. You bought the property in 1998, but you did not use it as your primary residence, right? In that case, I believe you do qualify for the $8k tax credit as first time home buyer.

Thank you for that, I filed my taxes and got back everything but the $8000 tax credit. I haven't talked to anyone at the IRS yet about why? This is why I was asking.

Greg, if you had been deducting your taxes and interest on Schedule A with your tax returns for the past several years on the home in Georgia, I'm sure the IRS is interpreting that as meaning it was your primary residence. That is, after all, the only way you are allowed to deduct those expenses on Schedule A. If it had been a rental property for the time you were in Florida, you would have had to file a Schedule E in order to account for rental income and the corresponding expenses.

That's my interpretation anyway; the IRS may be seeing something else entirely.