Head of Household
You may be able to file as head of household if you
meet all of the following requirements.
- You are unmarried or considered unmarried on the last day of the year.
- You paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year.
- A qualifying person lived with you in the home for more than half the year (except for
temporary absences, such as school). However, your dependent parent does not have to live
with you. See Special rule for parent, later, under Qualifying Person. A
foster child must live with you all year.
 If you qualify
to file as head of household, your tax rate usually will be lower than the rates for
single or married filing separately. You will also receive a higher standard deduction
than if you file as single or married filing separately.
Kidnapped children. A child may qualify you to file as head of
household, even if the child has been kidnapped. For more information, see Publication
501.
How to file. If you file as head of household, you can use either
Form 1040A or Form 1040. Indicate your choice of this filing status by checking the box on
line 4 of either form. Use the Head of a household column of the Tax Table or Schedule
Z of the Tax Rate Schedules to figure your tax.
Considered Unmarried
You are considered unmarried on the last day of the year if you are
legally separated from your spouse, according to your state law, under a divorce or
separate maintenance decree.
You are also considered unmarried on the last day of the tax year if you meet all
of the following tests.
- You file a separate return.
- You paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the tax year.
- Your spouse did not live in your home during the last 6 months of the tax year. Your
spouse is considered to live in your home even if he or she is temporarily absent due to
special circumstances. See Temporary absences, under Qualifying Person,
later.
- Your home was the main home of your child, stepchild, or adopted child for more than
half the year or was the main home of your foster child for the entire year. (See Home
of qualifying person, under Qualifying Person, later, for rules applying to
a child's birth, death, or temporary absence during the year.)
- You must be able to claim an exemption for the child. However, you can still meet this
test if you cannot claim the exemption only because the noncustodial parent is allowed to
claim the exemption for the child. See Exception under Support Test for Child
of Divorced or Separated Parents in chapter 3 for situations where the noncustodial
parent is allowed to claim the exemption for the child.
The general rules for claiming an exemption for a dependent are explained in chapter 3.
 If you were
considered married for part of the year and lived in a community property state (listed
earlier under Married Filing Separately), special rules may apply in determining your
income and expenses. See Publication 555 for more information.
Nonresident alien spouse. You
are considered unmarried for head of household purposes if your spouse was a nonresident
alien at any time during the year and you do not choose to treat your nonresident
spouse as a resident alien. However, your spouse is not a qualifying person for head of
household purposes. You must have another qualifying person and meet the other tests to be
eligible to file as a head of household.
Earned income credit. Even
if you are considered unmarried for head of household purposes because you are married to
a nonresident alien, you are still considered married for purposes of the earned
income credit (unless you meet the five tests listed earlier). You are not entitled to the
credit unless you file a joint return with your spouse and meet other qualifications. See
chapter 37 for more information.
Choice to treat spouse as resident. You are considered
married if you choose to treat your spouse as a resident alien.
Keeping Up a Home
To qualify for head of household status, you must pay more than half
of the cost of keeping up a home for the year. You can determine whether you paid
more than half of the cost of keeping up a home by using the Cost of Keeping Up a Home
worksheet, shown below.
Cost of Keeping Up a Home
|
Amount You Paid |
Total Cost |
| Property taxes |
$ |
$ |
| Mortgage interest expense |
|
|
| Rent |
|
|
| Utility charges |
|
|
| Upkeep and repairs |
|
|
| Property insurance |
|
|
| Food consumed on the premises |
|
|
| Other household expenses |
|
|
| Totals |
$ |
$ |
| Minus total amount you paid |
|
( ) |
| Amount others paid |
|
$ |
| If the total amount you paid is more than the amount others paid, you meet
the requirement of paying more than half the cost of keeping up the home. |
Costs you include. Include in the cost of upkeep expenses such as
rent, mortgage interest, real estate taxes, insurance on the home, repairs, utilities, and
food eaten in the home.
Costs you do not include. Do not include in the cost of upkeep
expenses such as clothing, education, medical treatment, vacations, life insurance, or
transportation. Also, do not include the rental value of a home you own or the value of
your services or those of a member of your household.
Qualifying Person
See Table 2-1 to see who is a qualifying person.
Any person not described in Table 2-1 is not a qualifying person.
Home of qualifying person. Generally, the qualifying person must
live with you for more than half of the year.
Special rule for parent. You may be eligible to file as
head of household even if the parent for whom you can claim an exemption does not live
with you. You must pay more than half the cost of keeping up a home that was the main home
for the entire year for your father or mother. You are keeping up a main
home for your father or mother if you pay more than half the cost of keeping your parent
in a rest home or home for the elderly.
Temporary absences. You and your qualifying person are
considered to live together even if one or both of you are temporarily absent from your
home due to special circumstances such as illness, education, business, vacation, or
military service. It must be reasonable to assume that the absent person will return to
the household after the temporary absence. You must continue to keep up the home during
the absence.
Death or birth. You may be eligible to file as head of
household if the individual who qualifies you for this filing status is born or dies
during the year. You must have provided more than half of the cost of keeping up a home
that was the individual's main home for more than half the year or, if less, the period
during which the individual lived.
Example. You are unmarried. Your mother, for whom you can claim
an exemption, lived in an apartment by herself. She died on September 2. The cost of the
upkeep of her apartment for the year until her death was $6,000. You paid $4,000 and your
brother paid $2,000. Your brother made no other payments toward your mother's support.
Your mother had no income. Because you paid more than half the cost of keeping up your
mother's apartment from January 1 until her death, and you can claim an exemption for her,
you can file as a head of household.
Table 2-1. Who Is a Qualifying Person for Filing as Head of Household? 1
| IF the person is your .
. . |
AND . . . |
THEN that person is . .
. |
| parent,
grandparent, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister, stepmother, stepfather,
mother-in-law, father-in-law, half brother, half sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law,
son-in-law, or daughter-in-law |
you can claim an exemption
for him or her 2 |
a qualifying person. |
| you cannot claim an
exemption for him or her |
NOT a qualifying
person. |
| uncle, aunt,
nephew, or niece |
he or she is related to you
by blood and you can claim an exemption for him or her 2, 3 |
a qualifying person. |
| he or she is not related to
you by blood 3 |
NOT a
qualifying person. |
| you cannot claim an
exemption for him or her |
| child,
grandchild, stepchild, or adopted child |
he or she is single |
a qualifying person. 4 |
| he or she is married, and
you can claim an exemption for him or her 2 |
a qualifying person |
| he or she is married, and
you cannot claim an exemption for him or her |
NOT a qualifying
person. 5 |
| foster child 6 |
the child lived with you
all year, and you can claim an exemption for him or her 2 |
a qualifying person. |
| the child lived with you
all year, and you cannot claim an exemption for him or her |
NOT a qualifying
person. |
| 1A person cannot qualify more
than one taxpayer to use the head of household filing status for the year. |
| 2If you can claim an exemption
for a person only because of a multiple support agreement, that person cannot be a
qualifying person. See Multiple Support Agreement in chapter 3. |
| 3You are related by blood to
an uncle or aunt if he or she is the brother or sister of your mother or father. You are
related by blood to a nephew or niece if he or she is the child of your brother or sister. |
| 4This child is a qualifying
person even if you cannot claim an exemption for the child. |
| 5This child is a qualifying
person if you could claim an exemption for the child except that the child's other parent
claims the exemption under the special rules for a noncustodial parent discussed under Support
Test for Child of Divorced or Separated Parents in chapter 3. |
| 6The term foster child
is defined under Exemptions for Dependents in chapter 3. |
Qualifying Widow(er)
With Dependent Child
If your spouse died in 2002, you can use married filing jointly as
your filing status for 2002 if you otherwise qualify to use that status. The year
of death is the last year for which you can file jointly with your deceased spouse. See Married
Filing Jointly, earlier.
You may be eligible to use qualifying widow(er) with dependent child as
your filing status for 2 years following the year of death of your spouse. For example, if
your spouse died in 2001, and you have not remarried, you may be able to use this filing
status for 2002 and 2003.
This filing status entitles you to use joint return tax rates and the highest standard
deduction amount (if you do not itemize deductions). This status does not entitle you to
file a joint return.
How to file. If you file as qualifying widow(er) with dependent
child, you can use either Form 1040A or Form 1040. Indicate your filing status by checking
the box on line 5 of either form. Write the year your spouse died in the space provided on
line 5. Use the Married filing jointly column of the Tax Table or Schedule
Y-1 of the Tax Rate Schedules to figure your tax.
Eligibility rules. You are eligible to file your 2002 return as a
qualifying widow(er) with dependent child if you meet all of the following tests.
- You were entitled to file a joint return with your spouse for the year your spouse died.
It does not matter whether you actually filed a joint return.
- You did not remarry before the end of 2002.
- You have a child, stepchild, adopted child, or foster child for whom you can claim an
exemption.
- You paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home that is the main home for you and
that child for the entire year, except for temporary absences. See Temporary absences and
Keeping Up a Home, discussed earlier under Head of Household.
As mentioned
earlier, this filing status is only available for 2 years following the year of death of
your spouse.
Example. John Reed's wife died in 2000. John has not remarried.
During 2001 and 2002, he continued to keep up a home for himself and his child (for whom
he can claim an exemption). For 2000 he was entitled to file a joint return for himself
and his deceased wife. For 2001 and 2002 he can file as qualifying widower with a
dependent child. After 2002 he can file as head of household if he qualifies.
Death or birth. You may be eligible to file as a qualifying
widow(er) with dependent child if the child who qualifies you for this filing status is
born or dies during the year. You must have provided more than half of the cost of keeping
up a home that was the child's main home during the entire part of the year he or she was
alive.
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