You may remember that as far back as 2018, its new tax law - known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act - changed some rules for homeowners.

But rest assured, if you sell your home in 2022 (or plan to sell in the future), your tax deductions on your return to the IRS can still amount to considerable savings.

Want to get the full picture of all the deductions (and tax exemptions or other write-offs) available to home sellers?

Check out this list to make sure you don't miss any of them.

1. Sales expenses

These deductions are allowed as long as they are directly related to the sale of the home and you have lived in the home for at least two of the five years prior to the sale.

Another caveat: the home must be a primary residence and not an investment property.

"You can deduct any expenses associated with the sale of the home, including legal fees, escrow fees, advertising costs and the realtor's commission," says Joshua Zimmelman, president of Westwood Tax and Consulting in Rockville Centre, N.Y.

This may also include home gardening fees, says Thomas J. Williams, a tax accountant who runs Your Small Business Accountant in Kissimmee, Florida.

Keep in mind that you can't deduct these expenses like you can mortgage interest. Instead, you subtract these costs from the sale price of your home, which in turn will have a positive impact on your capital gains tax (more on this below).

2. Home improvements and repairs

Score again! If you renovate several rooms to make your home more marketable (and therefore you get a higher sales price), you can also deduct the cost of these upgrades.

This includes painting the house or repairing the roof or water heater.

But there's one problem, and it all boils down to timing.

"If you need to make home improvements in order to sell your home, you can deduct those costs as a cost of sale, as long as they are done within 90 days of closing," says Zimmelman.

3. Property tax

Zimmelman says this deduction is capped at $10,000. So if you have been dutifully paying your property taxes until you sell your home, you can deduct the property taxes you paid last year, up to $10,000.

4. Mortgage interest

As with property taxes, you can deduct mortgage interest for the year you owned your home.

Just remember that under the 2018 tax law, new homeowners (and home sellers) can only deduct up to $750,000 in interest on mortgage debt.

However, homeowners who got their mortgage before December 15, 2017, can continue to deduct the original amount up to $1 million, according to Zimmelman.

Please note that mortgage interest and property taxes are deducted on an itemized basis. This means that to work in your favour, all your itemised deductions need to be greater than the new standard deduction, which has almost doubled since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act came into effect.

To complicate matters further, these figures change again in 2022 to reflect rising inflation, increasing to $12,950 for individuals, $19,400 for heads of household and $25,900 for married couples filing jointly.

5. Capital gains tax for sellers

The capital gains rule is not technically a deduction (it is an exclusion), but you will still like it.

As a reminder, capital gains are the profits from the sale of your home - any cash left over after your fees are paid, plus any outstanding mortgage debt.

And yes, these profits are taxed as income.

But here's the good news: you can exclude up to $250,000 from capital gains on the sale if you're single, and $500,000 if you're married.

The only big problem is that you must have lived in your home for at least two of the last five years.

Remember that the capital gain is based on the cost basis of the home, not the original purchase price.

What is the cost basis?

Assuming you buy your home for $400,000 and then spend $100,000 on renovations, your cost basis is $500,000.

A married couple could sell the home for $500,000 (after living in it for two years) and not pay any capital gains tax.

In other words, the higher your cost basis, the smaller your tax bill will be once you sell. Just remember to keep track of every home improvement receipt.

Finally, the rules for this exemption may change in a future tax bill.

Ralph DiBugnara, vice president of Cardinal Financial, says lawmakers may push to change this so that homeowners must live in the property for five of the last eight years, rather than two of the five.