The 1964 home-sale exclusion disproportionately benefited white seniors.

Evidence

In 1964, the same year the Civil Rights Act passed, section 121 of the Internal Revenue Code was passed, allowing taxpayers aged sixty-five and up to receive 20,000 in tax-free gain from the sale of their homes regardless of whether or not they purchased a new, more expensive home. (At the time, the median home value was approximately 12,000.) Congress’s rationale was that offering a tax break only for upsizing placed a financial burden on the elderly, who might be downsizing and in need of money for retirement. Again, white homeowners were by far the greatest beneficiaries of the new rule. In 1960, almost 71 percent of white Americans between the ages of sixty-five and seventy-four owned homes. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 194

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names section 121 of the IRC with its mechanism and dollar amounts — a precise tax provision the reader can cite.
• SHARE: The 20,000 exclusion versus 12,000 median home value is a striking detail for anyone following tax policy or wealth inequality.