Definition of Head of Household

Filing status is one of the first questions asked on an individual tax return, and Head of Household is one of five options, along with Single, Married, Married Filing Separately and Widow(er) with Dependent Child. Head of Household status is intended to give tax relief to an individual taxpayer who financially supports at least one other person in his home. If you qualify as Head of Household, it will create a deduction that directly reduces your adjusted gross income and overall income tax liability.

Considered Unmarried

If you are married, you cannot file as Head of Household. To be considered unmarried, you must have lived apart from your spouse for more than six months or were legally separated or divorced before the last day of the year. Temporary absences for business, medical care, school or military service and other similar circumstances don't count as separation. If you are considered unmarried, you must file an individual (not joint) tax return and still must meet the other qualifications for Head of Household status.

Keeping Up a Home

To be a Head of Household, you must have paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home. The costs considered part of keeping up a home include property taxes, utilities, rent, insurance, repairs and the price of food consumed on the premises. The IRS provides a Cost of Keeping Up a Home worksheet for calculating whether you have paid at least half of the total cost (see Resources).

Qualifying Child

In addition to paying to keep up a home, you must have a qualifying person living with you to be a Head of Household. The first category of qualifying person is a dependent child or other immediate relative under 19. Dependents can be over 19 if they are full-time students or disabled. To count as a qualifying dependent, the person must have lived with you for more than half the year or have been a full-time student, and the person must have earned less than half of his own financial support for the year. Children who were born, died or kidnapped during the year are considered to meet the residency requirement.

Qualifying Relative

The other, somewhat broader category of qualifying person is called "qualified relative." Actually, a qualifying relative does not have to be related to you if she lived with you the entire year. An actual relative does not have a residency requirement, but any "qualifying relative" must have earned less than a certain benchmark income. Unlike qualifying children, a qualifying relative must have demonstrably received more than half of his financial support from you for you to qualify as Head of Household.

Considerations

Divorced spouses often wonder who can claim the tax benefits of their children. One solution is for the spouse who qualifies as Head of Household to claim that higher standard deduction, allowing the other spouse to claim the child as a dependent and receive the child tax credit. To count as a qualified child for Head of Household status, the child must live with a parent for more than six months of the year, and only one parent will be able to meet this requirement. If you file as Head of Household, you should include Form 8332 in your return to release the child exemption to your former spouse.

Resources

• IRS Publication 501
• Head of Household
• Cost of Keeping Up a Home Worksheet