Head of Household, daughter not claimed as dependent

[Ebeta]

I am single (divorced) with a 22 year old daughter that lived at home in 2020 due to the pandemic. She was a full time college student from Jan-May, but lived at home from February-December due to Covid. I paid all of the costs to maintain the house she lived in 100% of the time from Feb-Dec and 50% of her college housing in Jan. I not claiming her as a dependent on my taxes, nor is her father. She filed her taxes as Single, no one claiming her as a dependent.  Can I claim Head of Household status even though I am not claiming her as a dependent. 

Per Turbo Tax:

You provide a home for certain other persons, you were unmarried or legally separated as of December 31, 2020, and ONE of the following was true:

2. You paid over half the cost of keeping up a home in which you lived and in which one of the following also lived for more than half of the year:

(a) Your UNMARRIED child, adopted child, grandchild, great-grandchild, or stepchild. This child does not have to be your dependent.

[macuser_22]

No you cannot claim HOH unless you claim her as a dependent or the other parent claims her.

She cannot claim herself if you *can* claim yer even if you do not claim her - the tax law does not permit that.

In fact there are special questions just for that in the personal information section: 1) CAN you be claimed as a dependent by another taxpayer?; and 2) Were (or will you be) claimed by that taxpayer?

If #1 is yes then the student cannot claim them self.

If #1 is yes and #2 is no, then the student still cannot claim them self but there are certain educational credits normally claimed by the parent that the student can claim. That is the only difference.

[ThomasM125]

The instructions you cite are for when a non-custodial parent claims the child. In other words, your child lives with you but you allow her father to claim her as his dependent.

[Carl]

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.