Filing as Head of Household

[MissMLB]

I have adult children living in my household and I have recently paid the mortgage off in full.  I maintain the home paying all the utilities, food, transportation, and other bills.  Can I file as head of household without a dependent?  

My daughters are 23, 23, and 34 and my son is 31.  One of my daughters, 23 has a son, my grandson for which she is claiming as her dependent.  But when I input that I will not claim him as my dependent Turbo Tax software does not understand that I do not wish to claim my grandson for the Child Tax Credit and EIC to allow my daughter to claim her son as her dependent since she paid out support for child care expenses.  

Can I claim HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD without a dependent?  How do I get Turbo Tax to understand that I would like to claim Head of Household without claiming a dependent?

[Vanessa A]

No.  In order to claim head of household, you have to have a dependent.  Without a dependent, if you are not married, you would only be able to file as single.  Even if you are providing for your family, it only counts if they are able to be claimed on your tax return as dependents. 

 If your daughter is claiming her son, then you would not enter him on your return at all.  You will need to delete him.

You can do this by selecting My info>>Delete next to his name. 

[xmasbaby0]

Sorry----you need a qualified dependent to file as HOH.

Am I Head of Household?

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1894553-do-i-qualify-for-head-of-household

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2900097-what-is-a-qualifying-person-for-head-of-household

If you qualify as Head of Household, when you enter your marital status (single or married filing separately) into MyInfo, and then enter your qualifying dependent, TurboTax will offer HOH as your filing status.

[DoninGA]

You were answered on your prior post for the same subject here - https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/claiming-head-of-household-without-a-dependent/00...

If you do not have a dependent and you are not married then you have to file as Single.  Just because you maintain the household does not mean you are eligible HOH filing status.  You Must have a qualifying person as a dependent.

See this TurboTax support FAQ for Head of Household - https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-filing-status/qualify-head-household...

[Opus 17]

You can't file as HOH unless you claim your grandchild as a dependent.  If you have no dependents, you can't file as HOH.  Furthermore, you should not even enter the grandchild's name as someone you support unless you and your daughter agree that you will claim the grandchild.  Some of the questions about custody and support (which are intended for parents who are divorced or separated and live apart) will give false results when you try to use them for a child that lives with other relatives.  The special rules that allow certain dependent benefits to be "split" between two people only apply to parents who live apart and share custody.  A dependent can never be split or shared between a parent and other relatives.

[Mike9241]

@MissMLB you may be able to claim the 23 old without the child  and/or the 31 year old and/or the 34 year old

to claim any of them as dependents

their gross income must be less than $4700 and you must have provided 50 or more of the support for anyone you are claiming

[lindyk]

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.    

[lindyk]

Wrong.  You need a "qualifying person," not necessarily a dependent.  See IRS publication 501. 

[CatinaT1]

This is a tricky situation. There are many factors that go into this. The bottom line is only one taxpayer can claim tax benefit for the child.

The grandson is the qualifying child for 2 taxpayers - the grandson's mom and the grandma. Only one taxpayer can claim tax benefit, they can't decide who gets to take which tax benefit. In this situation you either take tax benefit for the child or you don't. You both can't claim tax benefit for the same child.

If mom claimed grandson as her dependent, she gets all tax benefit and grandma cannot claim HOH. If mom is not claiming grandson, grandma should claim him and this will also allow her to claim HOH.

In IRS Pub 501, refer to page 15 under Qualifying Child of More Than One Person

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). 

1. The child tax credit, credit for other dependents, or additional child tax credit. 

2. Head of household filing status. 

3. The credit for child and dependent care expenses. 

4. The exclusion from income for dependent care benefits. 

5. 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.

If there is a disagreement between grandson's mom and grandma on who will claim the child for tax benefit. The IRS Tiebreaker rule will determine it. In this case it would go to grandson's mom since she is biological parent.

There are excellent examples of situations on page 15 of Pub 501. Example 1 is this exact situation.

@lindyk 

[Opus 17]

---

@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).

1. The child tax credit, credit for other dependents, or additional child tax credit.

2. Head of household filing status.

3. The credit for child and dependent care expenses.

4. The exclusion from income for dependent care benefits.

5. 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.

• If only one of the persons is the child's parent, the child is treated as the qualifying child of the parent.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

[VolvoGirl]

@lindyk  How did you get the amended return to show Head of Household status?

[lindyk]

Color my face red!  I stand corrected (and embarrassed).  I didn't understand that a child could not be qualifying for HOH status if claimed as a dependent by someone else.  That's not apparent in anything I read that discusses eligibility to claim HOH status.  In using the Interactive Tax Assistant (ITA), I answered "no" to the question whether I could claim grandchild as a dependent because my daughter claimed them.  When I answered yes to the question of whether someone else could claim them, the ITA should have asked the next question: *is* someone else claiming them.  In any event, I now see that I was wrong and I have no basis for filing an amended return.  Too bad -- I had plans for the additional refund! 

[xmasbaby0]

@lindyk Actually---you are awesome for coming back to the user forum to tell us that you got it figured out and for acknowledging your misunderstanding of the rules.   All too often, we have users who "dig in" and will not accept the idea that they are mistaken, and will never admit to being incorrect.  Thank you for posting!

[Hal_Al]

As others have said, you do not qualify for Head of Household (HoH) filing status, unless you are claiming a dependent.

Q.  How do I get Turbo Tax to understand that I would like to claim Head of Household without claiming a dependent?

A. You can't do that. If you do not plan to claim your grandson, as a dependent, you should not enter him in TurboTax (TT). The interview is designed for divorced and separated parents, who can do something like what you want to do. But a grandparent can't do that. 

That said, a child can be the “qualifying child” dependent of any close relative in the household. So, your daughter could allow you to claim her son (instead of her, not in addition to) as a dependent.  That would allow you to claim HoH, EIC and the child tax credit, instead of her.  It may be worthwhile to prepare tax returns both ways to see which way the family comes out best.  This tool may be helpful. 
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/

There is one caveat, to qualify to do that, your AGI must be higher than your daughter's.