When and HOW CAN I take the Head of Household credit on 1040a US taxes?

Question

What is the eligibilty on this?

Answer 1

There is no "Head of Household Credit" in the US.

Head of Household is a filing status. The tax rates for HoH are lower and the standard deduction is a bit higher than if you file as Single. You qualify for HoH if you pay more than half the cost of maintaining a home for one or more dependents, generally a child or elderly parent.

See IRS Pub 501 for a complete discussion on filing status. You can get a copy at the IRS website.

Answer 2

Using a filing status of head of household requires that you have a dependent and provide more than half of the cost of keeping up a home for the dependent for the year. The dependent must be closely related to you (IRS has a list of eligible relationships) by blood or marriage, and unless the dependent is your parent, he or she must live with you for over half of the year.

There are special rules for divorced or separated parents that might let the custodial parent file as head of household even if the other parent is allowed to take the child as a dependent.

Head of household is a filing status, not a credit. It is available to people who would otherwise file as single but meet the rules above. In some circumstances, it might be available to someone whose status otherwise would be married filing separately, if they didn't live with their spouse at any time during the last half of the year.

Answer 3

There is no "Head of Household" credit. It's a filing status. I've attached an irs article on what qualifies a person for head of household filing status. It's irs publication 501