Can I File Head of Household Without Dependents

IRS Head of Household Filing Status

The IRS Head of Household filing condition is one of the nigh misunderstood of all the tax filing statuses. Even so, it is important to know about this filing status considering it comes with some great taxation benefits for those who qualify. For case, this is a keen filing condition for unmarried parents! That is why it is and so misunderstood. Many think that y'all tin file for this status if yous are married and this is not the case. You accept to be single, or unmarried, with a dependent child or children to qualify.

What Is Head of Household?

Head of Household is a filing status for single or unmarried taxpayers who keep upwards a domicile for a Qualifying Person. The Head of Household filing condition has some important tax advantages over the unmarried filing status. If you authorize equally Head of Household, you will have a lower tax rate and a college standard deduction than a single filer.

Another taxation advantage is that Heads of Household must have a college income than single filers before they will owe income revenue enhancement.

The HOHucator tool will assistance you make up one's mind whether or not you qualify for the Head of Household filing status. Attempt it out!

Launch HOHucator Tool

Qualifications for Head of Household

You tin can due east-file your tax return using the Head of Household if you meet all 3 of these Head of Household filing status requirements:

1. You were non married (you were single, divorced, or legally separated), or were considered unmarried on the concluding twenty-four hour period of the tax year, December 31.
2. You lot paid more than half the price of keeping upwardly a home for the year.
3. A Qualifying Person lived with you lot in that dwelling house for more than than one-half the year, except for temporary absences (a dependent parent is not required to live with you lot).

Who Is Considered Single?

There are cases where a person is still legally married just lives separately from their spouse who provides little or no support. Even if you lot are still legally married, you may exist considered unmarried for the purposes of the Caput of Household filing status if all of the following statements are true:

1. You are non filing a articulation return.
2. Y'all paid more than than half of the costs of keeping upwards the home during the twelvemonth.
3. Your spouse did non live with you anytime during the last 6 months of the year (temporaryabsences don't count as non living with you lot).
4. Your Qualifying Person is your child, stepchild, or foster kid and they lived in your abode for more than half the year (except temporary absences).
5. You must be able to claim the kid equally a dependent however at that place is an exception to this if you tin can't merits the child as a dependent considering the noncustodial parent can merits the child using the rules for children of divorced or separated parents.

Special Case: Temporary Absence

You are nonetheless considered to have lived with your spouse in your home if you only lived apart due to temporary absences. A temporary absence includes living away from the habitation for the purposes of school, concern, military service, medical treatment, or holiday, with the expectation of returning to the home after the absence.

Special Example: Nonresident Alien Spouse

You lot can be considered unmarried (single) for the purpose of filing as Head of Household if your spouse was a nonresident alien anytime during the year and you do not choose to treat them every bit a resident alien for taxation purposes. You are considered married if y'all choose to treat your spouse equally a resident alien on your tax return.

Your spouse cannot exist a qualifying person, so you must take another qualifying person to be eligible to file as a Head of Household.

Costs of Keeping up a Home

To figure out if you paid more than half the cost of keeping upward a abode, yous must start make up one's mind the total cost. All of the post-obit expenses should be included when determining the total cost of keeping up a habitation:

• Rent
• Mortgage interest
• Insurance
• Property taxes
• Utilities
• Repairs and maintenance
• Nutrient eaten in the dwelling house
• Other household expenses.

Once you effigy the total cost, only halve the number and compare the consequence to your bodily expenses to come across if you paid more.

Special Example: Multiple People Pay the Cost of Keeping up a Home

You lot are considered to have paid more than than one-half the price of keeping up a home if you paid a greater portion of the full cost than anybody else did, even if y'all really paid less than half of the total cost.

Special Instance: Public Assistance

If yous paid any costs of keeping up your home with funds received from Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) or other public aid programs, you may not include those amounts in the expenses you paid. Nevertheless, you must withal count these expenses toward the total price of keeping up a dwelling.

Qualifying Person for Caput of Household

A Qualifying Person is someone who qualifies you to file as Caput of Household if they lived with y'all in your home for more than half the year, not counting temporary absences. Your parent, withal, does not have to live with you to be a Qualifying Person. Many dependents will count as a Qualifying Person for Caput of Household, just some dependents volition non. And a Qualifying Person does non necessarily accept to be a dependent.

So who does count as a Qualifying Person? Any of the following can be a Qualifying Person:

• A Qualifying Child who is unmarried.
• A Qualifying Kid who is married, equally long as you can claim them equally a dependent. (They can all the same exist your Qualifying Person if the only reason you lot cannot claim them is that you tin can be claimed as a dependent on someone else'southward return).
• Your female parent or father, if you can claim them as a dependent.
• A Qualifying Relative that is related to you, if they lived with you for more than than half the year and you tin claim them every bit a dependent.. Any of the post-obit relations may count as a Qualifying Person: your child, stepchild, grandchild or other descendant of one of your children (or stepchildren or foster children), son-in-law, girl-in-law, brother, sister, one-half brother, half sister, stepbrother, stepsister, brother-in-law, sis-in-law, parent, stepfather, stepmother, father-in-law, mother-in-constabulary, grandparent, great-grandparent, and, if related by blood, aunt, uncle, niece, or nephew.

Qualifying Person Examples:

Child Who Is a Qualifying Person, Example 1: Your single girl, who was 18 years old on December 31, lived with you all year and had no income, and so she did not provide more than than half of her own support. She is your Qualifying Child and single, so she is a Qualifying Person for Caput of Household.

Child Who Is a Qualifying Person, Instance 2: Your single girl was age 20 on December 31. She was a total-time educatee and lived on campus while attention school, so she is considered to accept lived with you. She paid some of her ain expenses, simply did not pay more than half of her own support. She is your Qualifying Child and single, so she is a Qualifying Person.

Child Who Is Not a Qualifying Person: Your daughter is single and was 25 years sometime at the end of the yr. She had a gross income of $x,000 for the year. She is too onetime to be your Qualifying Kid, and she made too much money to exist your Qualifying Relative, and then y'all cannot claim her as a dependent. Therefore, she is non a Qualifying Person for Head of Household.

Girlfriend or Boyfriend : Your girlfriend lived with you all year and had no income. You are able to claim her as a dependent because she is your Qualifying Relative. But she is not a Qualifying Person for Head of Household because she is not related to you. Your girlfriend or boyfriend tin can never be your Qualifying Person for the Head of Household filing status.

Child of Girlfriend or Boyfriend: Your girlfriend'southward 9-yr old son, who is not your child, lived with you all year and you provided all of his back up. Yous are able to merits him every bit a dependent because he is your Qualifying Relative, but he is not a Qualifying Person for Caput of Household because he is not actually related to you.

Qualifying Person Special Cases

Temporary Absence

If you or your Qualifying Person were temporarily absent from your home, you are still considered to accept lived together in the home. An acceptable temporary absence includes living away from the home for the purposes of school, business organisation, armed forces service, medical treatment, or vacation. You or your Qualifying Person must exist expected to render to the home later on the absence, and you must take kept upwardly the habitation during the absence.

Nascence or Expiry of Qualifying Person

If your Qualifying Person was born or died during the year, they are still considered to have lived with yous for the entire yr as long as yous paid more than than half of the cost of keeping up the home during the time your Qualifying Person was alive.

Parent As Your Qualifying Person

If you back up your mother or father, merely they did not live with yous, you may notwithstanding be able to claim them as a Qualifying Person for the Head of Household filing status. In social club to practise this, you must be able to claim them as your dependent, and you must have paid more than half the cost of keeping upwardly the home in which they lived for the entire year. If your parent lived in a residual home, nursing home, or home for the elderly, you are considered to have kept up their main dwelling if y'all paid more than than half of the cost of them living in that location.

Multiple Support Agreement

If you tin can claim someone as a dependent merely because of a multiple support agreement (where several people provide someone's support), and so you cannot count them equally a Qualifying Person for Head of Household condition.

Kidnapped Kid

Yeah, there is a rule for this. If your Qualifying Person is a child who was kidnapped, and thus did not live with you, y'all are nonetheless entitled to file as Head of Household if the following 3 statements are true:

1. Law enforcement presumes that the child was not kidnapped by a member of your family or the kid's family.
2. The child lived with you for more than half of the part of the year before they were kidnapped, in the year in which they were kidnapped.
3. If the kid had not been kidnapped, you would authorize every bit Caput of Household.

If multiple years pass before the child is recovered, y'all may file as Head of Household for each year in which the in a higher place statements hold true, until the year during which the child would turn eighteen, or until the child is determined to be deceased.

How To eFile as Head of Household

It is easy to file as Head of Household on eFile.com. Choosing your filing status is 1 of the first things you do when you start preparing your tax return. When yous claim the Caput of Household filing status, we volition report that filing status on your tax return.

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Source: https://www.efile.com/irs-head-of-household-tax-filing-status/

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