Claiming HOH - says kid does not qualify as dependent

[jessica_ravenclaw]

I've claimed HOH in the past and have had no issues with it, but I'm not getting the prompt this year to confirm whether or not I've paid for more than half of the expenses to my home.

My situation is this:

* I am legally divorced and have been for a few years.

* I have 50/50 joint custody of my minor child with my ex-husband.

* Per our agreement, he is allowed to claim her as a dependent, and I file the form to allow him to do this every year. I indicate this on TurboTax.

* Since she lives with me 50% of the time and I pay for more of her expenses and have a higher income, I have been claiming head of household.

However, this year, when I input her information under "Your Household", I'm not receiving that prompt to verify if I've paid more than half of the living expenses and no matter what, my status defaults to Single.

Am I missing a step?

[xmasbaby0]

Read that screen in MY INFO carefully.  It is very oddly worded.    It is not asking if you paid over half the child's support.  It is asking if the child paid over half.  Say NO.

[jessica_ravenclaw]

Hmm...I think that I'm talking about a different question here. I did indicate that she did not pay for her expenses, but TurboTax indicates that this question should come up, which I'm not seeing:

Answer Household Questions: The software will prompt you with specific questions related to the cost of keeping up your home. You must answer "Yes" to paying more than half the cost of maintaining the household for you and the qualifying person for more than half the year.

[xmasbaby0]

Am I Head of Household?

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-filing-status/qualify-head-household...

• What is a "qualifying person" for Head of Household?

  If you qualify as Head of Household, when you enter your marital status (single or married filing separately) into MyInfo, and then enter your qualifying dependent, TurboTax will offer HOH as your filing status.

  Are you the custodial parent?  Do you have an agreement with the other parent to allow the other parent to claim them--due to divorce or that you live apart and share custody?  Did one of you sign a Form 8332?

  If there is a signed 8332 then the custodial parent retains the right to file as Head of Household, get earned income credit and the childcare credit.  The non-custodial parent gets the child tax credit for children under the age of 17.  If the child is 17 or older the non-custodial parent gets the $500 credit for other dependents.

  If you and the other parent have a signed agreement, you need to indicate in MY INFO that you have such an agreement.

  As far as the IRS is concerned, the custodial parent is the one with whom the child spent the most nights during the tax year--at least 183 nights.

[jessica_ravenclaw]

Thank you! I’m not sure why, but I finally got the prompt that I was looking for after entering her info again and it gave me the proper filing status.