Really, because the unrelated taxpayer does not have to be related to the grandchild or the grandmother for them to be a “qualifying child” and/or “qualifying relative”. And they both can qualify the unrelated taxpayer for HOH filing status as long as the following criteria is met:
To be a qualifying child for HH the criteria must be met for the residency, age and relationship test:
Residency test: The grandchild lived the entire year with the unrelated taxpayer, which is longer than the minimum half of a year rule.
Age test: The grandchild is 8 years old, which is way younger than 19 years, or 24 if a full-time student limit. The grandchild also must be younger than the unrelated taxpayer who is 52 years old.
Relationship Test: The fact that the grandchild meets the criteria to be the dependent of the unrelated taxpayer and he is claiming her as a dependent, satisfies the relationship test for HH purposes, and the taxpayer does not have to be the biological grandpa of the grandchild.
The grandchild is a qualifying child for HOH purposes.
AND
The Grandma is a qualifying relative for HOH purposes because she meets the criteria which is having lived at least half of the year with the unrelated taxpayer, as she lived with him all year. And since her only income was from SSI disability it does not count for the income limit test, the taxpayer paid over 50% of her support, he maintains the cost of the home, and she meets all other dependency requirements and could be claimed as a dependent if the unrelated taxpayer chooses to claim her. That qualifies the grandma as a qualifying relative for HOH purposes.
To qualify for HOH, the unrelated taxpayer must have a qualifying child or qualifying relative, this taxpayer has both. The fact that they are not biologically related does not disqualify the taxpayer from filing HOH.
So don’t act like me posting this for several days is bothering you so much, I reposted it because people said they were confused about the way it was posted and the only one who seems to be unsatisfied is you who keeps telling me they all must be biologically related. If that was the case always, then the rules for HOH would simply state you must be biologically related and that would be the end of the rules. There would be no need for the qualifying child or qualifying relative rules. So now I have reposted it again to show that there are unique situations where the taxpayer does not have to be related to the qualifying child or relative to file HOH. My guess would be the original rules regarding HOH were made back when the families were traditional, but nowadays we have so many grandparents and unrelated third parties raising kids that are not biologically their own, and traditional marriages are not as common making less in-law relationships so adjustments to the rules had to be made keep up with the changes.
