What tax form for Home Sale Exemption ?

If you did not receive a 1099 showing the sales proceeds and if the entire gain is excluded under the law, then you report nothing on your tax return.

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Do not report the 2012 sale of your main home on your tax return unless:

You have a gain and do not qualify to exclude all of it,

You have a gain and choose not to exclude it, or

You received Form 1099-S.

If you have a gain that you cannot or choose not to exclude, if you received a Form 1099-S, or if you have a deductible loss, report the sale on your tax return. Report the sale on Part I, line 1 or Part II, line 3 of Form 8949 as a short-term or long-term transaction, depending on how long you owned the home. Report the proceeds from the sale (Worksheet 2, line 1) in column (d) and the cost or other basis (Worksheet 2, line 4) in column (e). If there are any selling expenses, enter ?E? in column (f) and the necessary adjustment in column (g). See the Instructions for Form 8949.

If you can exclude some or all of your gain on the sale of your main home, enter ?H? in column (f). Enter the amount of the excluded (nontaxable) gain as a negative number (in parenthesis) in column (g). See the Instructions for Form 8949.

If you have a loss on the sale of your main home for which you received a Form 1099-S, you must report the sale on Form 8949 even though the loss is not deductible. Enter "L" in column (f) and enter the amount of the nondeductible loss as a positive number in column (g). See the Instructions for Form 8949.

If you used the home for business or to produce rental income, you may have to use Form 4797 to report the sale of the business or rental part (or the sale of the entire property if used entirely for business or rental). See Business Use or Rental of Home , earlier, and the Instructions for Form 4797.

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While not required and perhaps even discouraged by IRS, I see no harm in reporting the sale on Schedule D, showing zero gain/loss based on an adjustment code from Form 8949.

I'm pretty sure doing so will start the statute of limitations clock, should the IRS want to challenge your eligibility to exclude all of your gain.

Beyond that, it's a major financial event, and with the increasing availability of archived tax returns in electronic form as a data resource, why not have a permanent record at your fingertips?

If you paid off a mortgage denominated in a foreign currency that has declined in value relative to the $US, don't forget to report the gain on the foreign conversion. It would be an ordinary gain.