Filing Status & Qualifying Dependents

[Gizzymoo]

I'm using TurboTax Home & Business Desktop for 2023 taxes. In April 2023, my son turned 19, so no longer a child dependent. However, he does meet all of the qualifying dependent requirements:

*They aren't claimed as a dependent by someone else.

*They're a US citizen.

*They aren’t filing a joint return with their spouse.

*They lived with you the entire year.

*They made less than $4,700 in 2023.

*You provided more than half of their financial support.

I answered all of TurboTax's questions regarding my son and the answers all met the qualifying requirements, but the software is forcing me to file status of SINGLE instead of HEAD of HOUSEHOLD. This does not seem correct to me, but TurboTax doesn't allow me to change it.

Why would I NOT be HOH in this situation? And if I should be HOH, how do I get the software to override this Single status?

And yes, I know I'm late. 🙂 Thank you for any help or answers you can provide.

[DoninGA]

Go back through the Personal Info section using the desktop editions.  Assuming that you indicated that you were filing as Single.

A dependent age 17 or older can be eligible under the Qualifying Relative rules if they are not a full time student.  Go back through all the questions and make sure that you indicated he did not have gross income of $4,700 or more and that you provided over one-half of his support.  Also, the program should have asked if you contributed more than one-half of the cost to maintain your home, answer Yes.  If you answered all the questions correctly then the program would have given you Head of Household filing status.

If not, then delete him as your dependent and then re-enter.

[Gizzymoo]

Apparently the software needed to do an update. Before receiving your reply, I tried shutting down and restarting the software. Upon restart it did an update. When I went back in, he was suddenly a dependent and I was HOH.

Thanks for your quick and helpful reply