To qualify for exclusion treatment on the sale of a principal residence, the residence must have been owned and used by the taxpayer for at least two years during the five-year period ending on the date of the sale. Are there any exceptions to this provision? There is an exception under $ 121 . Under this code section, the exclusion amount for a taxpayer filing single is $ which is by a fraction, the numerator of which is the number of qualifying months and the denominator of which is months. The result is the maximum amount of gain. The relief provision applies when the failure to meet the two-year ownership and occupancy requirement results