@lindyk wrote:
You absolutely CAN claim HOH status, even though someone else is claiming your grandchild as a dependent! Turbotax is wrong, and so are the folks saying that you have to have a dependent to use HOH status. You need a qualifying person -- not necessarily a dependent. I went to the IRS Interactive Tax Assistant to determine filing status. I entered: my marital status is single; I paid more than 1/2 the cost of keeping the home in which I live; my minor grandchild lived with me for more than half of the year, did not provide any of their own support, and was not married. In answer to the question of whether I can claim them as a dependent, I said "No" and in answer to the question whether someone else can claim them, I said "Yes." The IRS says my filing status is HOH. Because I didn't realize that Turbotax was providing incorrect information, I need to file an amended return. I finally figured out how to get the Turbotax software to prepare the amended federal return to show HOH status, but I can't figure out how to get it properly prepare my amended state return.
Why did you answer "No" to the question, can you claim them as a dependent? Who is the other person who can claim them instead?
I'm not sure the IRS gave you the right answer, or maybe you didn't understand the questions correctly.
See the tiebreaker rules from IRS publication 501.
Sometimes, a child meets the relationship, age, residency, support, and joint return tests to be a qualifying child of more than one person. Although the child is a qualifying child of each of these persons, generally only one person can actually treat the child as a qualifying child to take all of the following tax benefits (provided the person is eligible for each benefit).
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The child tax credit, credit for other dependents, or additional child tax credit.
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Head of household filing status.
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The credit for child and dependent care expenses.
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The exclusion from income for dependent care benefits.
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The earned income credit.
The other person can’t take any of these benefits based on this qualifying child. In other words, you and the other person can’t agree to divide these tax benefits between you.
Tiebreaker rules.
To determine which person can treat the child as a qualifying child to claim these five tax benefits, the following tiebreaker rules apply. For purposes of these tiebreaker rules, the term “parent” means a biological or adoptive parent of an individual. It does not include a stepparent or foster parent unless that person has adopted the individual.
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If only one of the persons is the child's parent, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parent.
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If the parents file a joint return together and can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parents.
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If the parents don't file a joint return together but both parents claim the child as a qualifying child, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent with whom the child lived for the longer period of time during the year. If the child lived with each parent for the same amount of time, the IRS will treat the child as the qualifying child of the parent who had the higher AGI for the year.
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If no parent can claim the child as a qualifying child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year.
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If a parent can claim the child as a qualifying child but no parent does so claim the child, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the person who had the highest AGI for the year, but only if that person's AGI is higher than the highest AGI of any of the child's parents who can claim the child.
Subject to these tiebreaker rules, you and the other person may be able to choose which of you claims the child as a qualifying child.
