Yes. Since you have not lived with your husband for 7 years, as long as your grandchildren qualify as dependents, you can claim Head of Household.
No, you do NOT check the single box. Instead you will check the box for Married filing separately, then as you go through the questions you will be asked if you will be asked if your spouse lived with you at any point in the last 6 months of the year, answer No. TurboTax will then continue through and after you answer the questions regarding dependents it will tell you if you qualify for Head of Household and ask you if you want to change your filing status.
To qualify, you have to meet certain criteria. To file as Head of Household, you have to:
- Pay for more than half of the expenses for a qualifying household
- Be considered unmarried on the last day of the tax year or if married not have lived with your spouse at all for the last 6 months of the year
- Have a qualifying child or dependent
To claim someone as a Qualifying Relative, they must be:
- Your child ( including step children, adoptive children and foster children) or a descendent of them
- Your sibling (including half siblings) or a child of your sibling or a sibling-in-law
- Your parent or grandparents, including step parents and in laws
- Any other person that lived with you for the entire tax year
- Not a qualifying child of another taxpayer
- Someone that you provided over half of their support for during the tax year
- Has less than $5,050 in income (not counting social security)
The following criteria must be met to claim someone as a qualifying child:
- Your child (including adopted and foster children), your sibling, or a descendent of any of them.
- Age 18 or younger at the end of the tax year OR under 24 (and younger than you and your spouse) if they are a full-time student
- Lived with you for more than 6 months during the tax year
- They did not provide more than half of their own support (social security does not count)
- They did not file a joint return, unless it was to claim a refund
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