Sorry, I'm not American and I don't know the difference... thanks for helping
2007-06-04 04:28:44 · 4 answers · asked by nic 2 in Business & Finance ➔ Taxes ➔ United States
Most Americans do not understand the Head of Household filing status. The definition is confusing.
The IRS considers a person married if they are married as of December 31. But wait, a person can be "considered unmarried" even if they are married. This can occur if they have not lived with their spouse the last half of the year, and they have a child living with them in the home that they maintain.
A Head of Household, for IRS purposes, must be either not married or "considered unmarried" as defined above. In both cases, the person has to maintain a home for a "qualifying person" for head of household purposes.
If the person is not married, then the "qualifying person" can be a dependent child, parent, aunt, uncle, or descendant of these, by birth or marriage.
If the person is "considered unmarried," then they have the child living with them, and that is their only choice of "qualifying person". They can't use another relative to get the Head of Household status. However, the child can be either their dependent, or they can still count the child as qualifying them for Head of Household if they have signed over the dependency exemption to the absent spouse.
This filing status is routinely misused by married persons and is a source of a huge amount of tax fraud, with married persons claiming credits based on one income alone when in fact there are two incomes.
2007-06-04 06:13:07 · answer #1 · answered by ninasgramma 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Married probably means the same thing no matter where your home country is - you are legally married to someone.
Head of household is a tax status for certain unmarried people who are providing more than half of the expenses for a household where dependents of theirs live. Tax rates are better than the rates for filing as single.
The answer from ninasgramma above provides details of the rules.
2007-06-04 07:09:48 · answer #2 · answered by Judy 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Married should be obvious. If your marital status at the end of the year is married, you can file either Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately. MJF will usually result in lower tax. MFS isolates you from any claim the IRS may have against you for the actions or your spouse.
Head of Household is a special filing status for single filers or filers who can be considered single and who maintain a home for certain classes of dependents, usually children or elderly parents. HoH has lower tax rates than Single but higher than Married Filing Jointly.
It's all explained in IRS Pub 501. You can download a copy from the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov
2007-06-04 04:33:33 · answer #3 · answered by Bostonian In MO 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
As just about everyone else said, Head Start is a federally funded preschool program. You do need to qualify for head start, income guidelines, child care subsidy, reach-up and a few others. Head start not only serves the child but the family, that's the biggest difference between head start and other preschool programs.
2016-03-19 02:10:29 · answer #4 · answered by Emily 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
lol, the head of the household is suposedly the person who makes the desicions and brings in the money.
however, in this day and age, most women have careers and desicions are made together, (for the most part, or at least in my house, lol)
2007-06-04 04:36:50 · answer #5 · answered by Cara 4 · 0⤊ 8⤋