Can I claim Head of Household status even though I am not claiming her as a dependent.
No. To claim HOH the IRS requires you to have a qualifying dependent, regardless of what the TTX program may be saying.
She filed her taxes as Single, no one claiming her as a dependent.
Actually, she can't do that. If the student did not provide more than 50% of their own support for the entire tax year, then the student qualifies as a dependent on the parent's tax return. Additionally for a student, time spent away from home for the primary purpose of attending school is considered as time having lived with you. So it looks like the student lived with you for the entire tax year.
Next, take note that there is no requirement for the parents to provide the student any support. Not one penny. The support requirement is on the student, and only the student. Scholarships, grants, 529 distributions, Gifts from Aunt Mary, money from parents and any other third party income received by the student does not count for the student providing more than half of their own support. There are only two possible ways the student can provide more than half of their own support.
1) The student was self-employed or had a W-2 job during the tax year that paid enough to justify their claim of providing more than half of their own support. Additionally, that earned income must be more than the total amount of all third party income received in the same tax year.
2) The student was the *primary* borrower on a *qualified* student loan and sufficient funds were distributed to the student during the tax year to justify their claim of providing more than half of their own support. Additionally, the total amount of funds distributed must exceed the total of all third party income received by the student during the same tax year.
Finally, on the dependent status, the parents have a choice. The student does not. The key word in the requirement is "qualify". So if the student qualifies as a dependent on the parent's tax return, the student must select the option for "I can be claimed on someone else's tax return". It does not matter if the parents actually claim the student or not.
