My fiance and I bought a house in 2017. My daughter lives with us. We split the household bills. Which of us can claim HOH or can both of us?

[DoninGA]

If your fiance is not the child's father then he cannot have Head of Household filing status if he claimed your daughter on his tax return.  You would be the only one eligible for HOH by claiming your daughter plus you would have to provide over one-half the cost of maintaining the household.  If you do NOT provide over one-half the cost for the household, then neither of you can have HOH filing status.

[DoninGA]

Edited comment to add - "If you do NOT provide"

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

Both of you cannot claim HoH. Although that's theoretically possible, you situation does not qualify.

You say you split expenses evenly. That would mean neither of you can claim HoH, as neither has paid MORE than half the household expenses. You need to arrange your finances so that the person you want to be HoH pays slightly more than the other. Remember, to be HoH, you must be claiming a dependent that resides in the household. So, it sounds like that should be you.

[Heather14]

One of the requirements for Head of Household (HOH) filing status state that you must have paid more than half the cost to run your home for that year. 

Although, there are exceptions to this rule. If there are two households sharing one house, and each household can prove that they exist as separate households, and meet the other requirements to file as Head of Household, then two taxpayers living at the same address could qualify for HOH filing status. For example, if two unrelated taxpayers each with children occupy living quarters in common and each taxpayer pays more than one-half of the household costs incurred by each respective family, each taxpayer will be treated as maintaining a separate household. Please see the following IRS link for more information: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-wd/1998-041.pdf