Head of Household is one of five filing status options from which a person must chose when filing their taxes. A person can claim the Head of Household filing status on their tax return if the person passes three tests: Unmarried Test, Support Test, and Qualifying Person Test. A person filing for head of household is unmarried or considered unmarried at the end of the year, and paid more than half the cost of maintaining a home for the year, and has one or more qualifying persons who reside with the taxpayer for more than half the year.
Unmarried Test
To qualify for head of household status, a person must be unmarried or considered as if they were unmarried for the year.
Normally, a taxpayer must be unmarried on the last day of the year in order to file as head of household. Unmarried means a person is not married because he or she is single, divorced, or legally separated under a separate maintenance decree. As general rule, state law determines whether a person is married or not married.
In the case of same-sex married couples, their marriages are recognized for federal tax purposes based on the state or country where the marriage was celebrated. The laws of the state where the same-sex married couple resides determines whether the couple is considered married or not married for the purpose of filing their state income tax return.
Married Persons may be Considered Unmarried for Tax Filing Purposes
A married person may be considered as if he or she were unmarried for the purpose of qualifying for head of household status. To be considered unmarried, the person needs to be legally married and have lived in a separate residence from his or her spouse for at least the last six months of the year (July through December). Furthermore, the taxpayer would need to file a tax return separate from his or her spouse, and needs to meet the other two criteria for head of household relating to the Support Test and the Qualifying Person Test.
In other words, the married person would need to (1) reside someplace separate from the other spouse for at least the last six months of the year, and (2) pay for more than half the cost of maintaining their home, and (3) have one or more qualifying persons living with them at their separate home for more than half the year.
Support Test
To qualify for head of household status, the taxpayer needs to pass a “Support Test.” The support test means that the taxpayer provides more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year.
The cost of keeping up a home includes such expenses as rent, mortgage payments, property taxes, property insurance, repairs, utilities, and groceries. Costs not included in the support test are clothing, education, medical care, vacations, life insurance and transportation.
Qualifying Person Test
To qualify for the head of household filing status, a qualifying person needs to live in the taxpayer’s home for more than half the year. Only certain types of closely-related relatives can be qualifying persons for the head of household filing status. A qualifying person is:
- Child, step child, adopted child, foster child, brother or sister, or a descendant of one of these whom you claim as a dependent under the qualifying children rules;
- Child, step child, adopted child, foster child, brother or sister, or a descendant of one of these whom you would be eligible to claim as a dependent under the qualifying children rules but choose not to claim as a dependent because you released the dependent’s exemption to the noncustodial parent;
- Mother or father who can be claimed as a dependent under the qualifying relative rules; or
- Brother, sister, grandparent, niece, or nephew whom you can claim as a dependent under the qualifying relative rules.
Taxpayers who qualify for the Head of Household filing status benefit from a higher standard deduction and wider tax brackets compared to the single filing status.