Can you claim yourself as head of household

The rules for filing with the Head of Household status are designed to help single persons with dependents, but in some cases, married persons can claim the head of household filing status.

To qualify for the head of household filing status while married, you must be considered unmarried on the last day of the year, which means you must:

• File your taxes separately from your spouse
• Pay more than half of the household expenses
• Not have lived with your spouse for the last 6 months of the year
• Provide the principal home of a qualifying dependent
• Claim said dependent on your tax return

If you meet all of these requirements, you may file as head of household while married.

Filing with the head of household status is beneficial for increasing how much of the Earned Income Credit (EIC) you qualify for, since having a child dependent qualifies you for a greater tax break—you can read more about filing as head of household in our Tax Guide.

No, you may not file as head of household because you weren't legally separated from your spouse or considered unmarried at the end of the tax year. To be considered unmarried at the end of a tax year, your spouse may not be a member of your household during the last 6 months of the tax year and you must meet other requirements.

Your filing status for the year will be either married filing separately or married filing jointly.

• If you use the married filing separately filing status you can be treated as not married to claim the earned income tax credit. To qualify, the spouse claiming the earned income credit cannot file jointly with the other spouse, and satisfy certain other requirements (for example, not have the same principal residence as the other spouse for at least six months out of the year or have a written separation agreement and do not reside with their spouse at the end of the year), and must have a qualifying child living with them for more than half the year. You cannot claim the credit for childcare expenses since you were considered married. This credit requires married taxpayers to file a joint return to be eligible for the credit.
• You may be eligible to claim these credits if you decide to file a joint return with your spouse.

See What is My Filing Status? and Publication 501, Dependents, Standard Deduction and Filing Information for information about filing status.

Additional Information:

• Publication 596, Earned Income Credit (EIC)
• Am I Eligible to Claim the Child and Dependent Care Credit?
• Publication 503, Child and Dependent Care Expenses
• Use the EITC Assistant

Subcategory:

Filing Status

Category:

Filing Requirements, Status, Dependents

If the parents of a year-old child never married but live together with the child for the tax year, and both contribute to the cost of maintaining the household for the child and themselves, may they both file as head of household?

Answer:

No, only one parent may claim the child as a qualifying child to file as head of household.

• To file as head of household you must furnish over one-half of the cost of maintaining the household for you and a qualifying person. Therefore, only one of the parents will have contributed more than one-half of the cost of maintaining the household and be eligible to file as head of household.
• If both parents claim the child as a qualifying child, there is a tiebreaker rule to determine which parent may claim the child. See Publication 501, Dependents, Standard Deduction and Filing Information for more information.

Additional Information:

• What Is My Filing Status?

Subcategory:

Filing Status

Category:

Filing Requirements, Status, Dependents

To qualify for head of household filing status, do I have to claim my child as a dependent?

Answer:

Generally, to qualify for head of household filing status, you must have a qualifying child or a dependent. However, a custodial parent may be eligible to claim head of household filing status based on a child even if he or she released a claim to exemption for the child. See Noncustodial parent is claiming our child as a dependent; do I still qualify as head of household?

Additional Information:

• What Is My Filing Status?
• Publication 501, Dependents, Standard Deduction and Filing Information

Subcategory:

Filing Status

Category:

Filing Requirements, Status, Dependents

I am divorced with one child. This year my ex-spouse, who is the noncustodial parent, is entitled to claim our child as a dependent. May I still qualify as head of household?

Answer:

You may still qualify for head of household filing status even though you aren't entitled to claim your child as a dependent, if you meet the following requirements: