@DoninGA wrote:
The one who is claiming their own child as a dependent would file as Head of Household.
To file as HOH, a taxpayer must pay MORE THAN HALF the expenses, and ALSO claim a child dependent. If no one pays more than half the expenses, no one is eligible to file as HOH, even if they have a dependent.
However, you can consider whether you are all in one "household". A household does not necessarily mean everyone living under one roof. Consider two examples.
- Amy has a 3 bedroom house and lives there with her child Mary. Amy rents the third bedroom to an unrelated person, Betty, who lives in the third bedroom with her son Bobby. Betty pays fair market rent. Amy and Betty keep separate food supplies in the kitchen, generally don't eat together, and don't do activities as a family. They may each be able to claim to be the head of their own separate household even though they are living under one roof.
- Amy has a 3 bedroom house and lives there with her child Mary. The third bedroom is occupied by Amy's sister Cici and Cici's child. The two families share expenses, share meals, and generally do family activities together. The two families are probably considered one household because of how they live, even though Amy and Cici each have a child dependent, only one of them can use HOH on their tax return.
So the ultimate determination may need to consider who the 3 people are who share expenses, whether they have qualifying dependents, and whether they have one combined household or separate households, based on their relationships and activities together.
