Can I file my taxes as head of household, or am I to file single?

Question

I am a 22 year old man living in an apartment with my fiancee and her 3 year old daughter. My fiancee pays only 1/4 of the total bills for maintaining the household... Am I able to file as HOH? Or am I still to file as single?

I LIVE IN WASHINGTON STATE

Answer 1

Jason, what a can of worms you opened. I have to put my 2 cents in because all but one of the previous answers is 100% correct....Judy's.

If you actually read the publication that everyone is referring to, you will see that Judy is correct. Allow me to explain.

First of all, it should be obvious by now that you absolutely can NOT claim HoH regardless what state you lived in. Back in 2004 and earlier, you may have been able to do so, but since 2005, the laws changed in regard to unrelated children.

Second of all, everyone is saying that your girlfriend's child is your girlfriends Qualifying Child. That is not necessarily true. A little known law in the publication is in order to have a Qualifying Child of your own, you can NOT be somebody else’s dependent. As soon as you are somebody else’s dependent, you can NOT have any dependents of your own. If you can't have any dependents, you can't have any Qualifying Children. If your girlfriend's child is not her Qualifying Child, nor anybody else’s Qualifying Child, then she is available to be your Qualifying Relative.

Therefore, if your girlfriend lived with you all year, earned less than $3,300, had less than $250 in investment income, is a US Citizen or Resident, and depended on your for at least half of her support, she is your Qualifying Relative (dependent). If so, and if her daughter meets all of the same criteria, her daughter is also your Qualifying Relative (dependent).

Now, someone may try to tell you that her daughter may be her biological father's QC or her grandparent's QC, but remember, in order to be anybody's QC, she has to live with them for at least 6 months. I doubt she lived with any of them at all, let alone 6 months.

Good luck.

Answer 2

No, you cannot file HOH or claim the child as your dependant -- unless you marry the child's mother at which time you'd file a joint return.

See here: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf Go to page 8 and look at Example 4 on the left side of the page. It's exactly the situation that you are in.

FYI, it doesn't matter how much of the household bills she pays as far as the support test is concerned. If she pays more than half of the cost of supporting her daughter you'd lose on the support test as well. But since you don't pass the relationship test that's a moot point.

The state that you live in does not matter as far as the IRS is concerned, the rules apply to all US taxpayers regardless of where they reside.

Your girlfriend probably can file HOH and claim the EITC and child tax credit as well, depending upon her earned income.

Answer 3

Just handling the majority of the bills, doesn't qualify him as Head of Household. He has to have a dependent child or parent living in the home from more than 6 months of the year, that he is related to by blood or adoption and he has paid more than half the cost of keeping up the home for the year. If he qualifies for HOH and files that way, it will have nothing to do with you filing single.

Answer 4

You cannot file as head of household. You have to maintain a house for a relative. You are not related to the people in your household. Supporting the household is not a factor.

You have to file as single, unless you are currently married, in which case you would either file jointly with your spouse, or file married filing separately.


Unless your fiance made less than $3,300 and lived with you for 12 months in 2006, you cannot claim her. You cannot claim the child since she is a qualifying child of her mother and therefore cannot qualify as your dependent under any circumstances.

TMA has correctly summarized the rules as stated in the IRS publications.

Answer 5

This topic is confusing, but I did the research and I copied this from the IRS website.

Qualifying Person
See Table 4 to see who is a qualifying person.

Any person not described in Table 4 is not a qualifying person.

Example —girlfriend.

Your girlfriend lived with you all year. Even though she may be your qualifying relative if the gross income and support tests (explained later) are met, she is not your qualifying person for head of household purposes. See Table 4, footnote 7.

Example 4—girlfriend's child.

The facts are the same as in Example 3 except your girlfriend's 10-year-old son also lived with you all year. He is not your qualifying child and, because he is your girlfriend's qualifying child, he is not your qualifying relative (see Not a Qualifying Child Test, later). As a result, he is not your qualifying person for head of household purposes.


From this I conclude that you cannot file as "Head of household". You must file "single". You may claim your girlfriend as a dependent, however, if all of the following apply:
-she lived with you ALL year
-she has gross income of less than $3,300
-you provided more than half of her support for the year

You cannot claim your girlfriend's son, however as a dependent. He is neither your qualifying child nor qualifying relative. He is the qualifying child of your girlfriend. She would have to file a return to claim her son as a dependent.


http://www.irs.gov/publications/p501/ar02.html#d0e943

Answer 6

Until you marry her mother, you can't claim her as a dependent unless she was placed with you as an Eligible Foster Child. She doesn't pass the Relationship Test as stated in the IRS Publication 501: Exemptions, Standard Deduction and Filing Information. See Relationship Test under Qualifying Child on page 10.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

It might be a good thing, though. Your fiancee may be able to get a bigger refund with a qualifying child and her Earned Income Credit (EIC). A lower income could give her a bigger credit than you could get, if you could take the credit at all. Here's a link to the IRS webpage on the EIC for more information if you need it.

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96406,00.html

Answer 7

Let your fiancee claim her daugher and hoh, and you claim single until you get married. Then when she gets her refund let her give you a little since she only pays 1/4.If then you both agree on this and an amount. Thats only if you both want a bigger return @ the end. Good Luck

Answer 8

As long as you have a dependent, you can file head of household.. provide that your fiancee is not going to carry yoour daughter. Depending on who makes the most money, it would be beneficial for you to carry the child.. BUT if she made less than $33,000 she could file single and get an EARNED INCOME CREDIT deduction that will allow her to get more in return.. Either way your returns should be OK.

Recap.

If you file head of household (HOH), you must have a dependent (s)
Or she can file HOH ad carry her daughter and qualify for EIC.
You have a few options, for more info contact H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt..

Note: The tax laws have changed a bit since last year, so it is best to seek our professional advice and get the best for your returns..

Any doctor bills or co-pay in the last year, they can be excellent write offs for you as well.

Be good!

Answer 9

If both of them lived with you all year, you might be able to claim them as dependents. You can only claim your fiance if she made less than $3300 total in 2006. If her daughter lived with you all year, you paid over half of her support, and nobody else claims her, then you probably can. If they only lived with you for part of the year, then you can't claim either of them.

Neither your fiance nor her daughter qualifies you to file as head of household. There are specific relatives, by blood or marriage, who qualify you for that. So you would have to file as single.

I realize that there are many answers here saying the opposite. Unfortunately, Yahoo Answers isn't a very good place to get accurate tax advice. I'd suggest that if you have doubts, you call the IRS with your question, or check with a VITA site (see irs.gov for information on sites).

You can download information on filing status and allowable dependents at irs.gov - instructions for 1040 have it, also Publication 17.

Answer 10

You can file head of household base on the fact that you provide over half of the support for you fiance and child however then your fiance must file single. You can not have the child tax credit because at this time the child is not your dependent. So my advice is that you file HOH and your fiance file single and claim the child.