@RayW7 wrote:
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:
- You're not married, or you’re considered unmarried on the last day of the year.
- You paid more than half of the cost of keeping up a home, that was your home and the main home of your child for more than one-half of the year.
- Your child is your qualifying child for purposes other than the dependency exemption and the child tax credit.
-follow these links for additional information-
Filing Status 2 | Internal Revenue Service
That is true ONLY if the reason for not claiming as a dependent is because the other parent is claiming per a custodial agreement. But that is ONLY possible if the parents have lived apart at all times during the last 6 months of the tax year.
The poster said that they did not live apart until August which is less then the last 6 months of 2020 so the special rules for children of separated parents that live apart do not apply.
See “Children of divorced or separated parents or parents who live apart” in IRS Pub 501 for full information.
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p501#en_US_2018_publink1000220904
**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**
