My parents live with me so I will file head of household to claim them.... will they be able to file a separate return also?

[DoninGA · Accepted solution]

If you claim your parents as dependents under the Qualifying Relative rules, they can file a tax return but cannot file as Married Filing Jointly.  They can file as Married Filing Separately and indicate that they can be claimed as a dependent on someone else's return.  If they file their return as Married Filing Jointly then you cannot claim them as dependents on your tax return.

To be a Qualifying Relative -

1. The person cannot be your qualifying child or the qualifying child of any other taxpayer. A child is not the qualifying child of any other taxpayer if the child's parent (or any other person for whom the child is defined as a qualifying child) is not required to file an income tax return or files an income tax return only to get a refund on income tax withheld.

2. The person either (a) must be related to you or (b) must live with you all year as a member of your household. 

3. The person's gross income for the year must be less than $4,000 (social security does not count) in 2015

4. You must provide more than half of the person's total support for the year.

5. The person must be a U.S. citizen or a U.S., Canada, or Mexico resident for some part of the year.

6. The person must not file a joint return with their spouse.

[Critter]

Joint Return Test :  <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch03.html">https://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch03.html</a>

You generally cannot claim a married person as a dependent if he or she files a joint return.

Exception....   You can claim an exemption for a person who files a joint return if that person and his or her spouse file the joint return only to claim a refund of income tax withheld or estimated tax paid.


This means they can file a joint return if they are not otherwise required to file a return and they file ONLY to get back withheld or estimated taxes ... that they will not and do not have a tax liability or any other credits to claim.

[SweetieJean]

Do they have any income besides Social Security?

[TaxGuyBill]

So to clarify:  In order to claim Head of Household, one or both of your parents much qualify as your dependent.

If the have more than $4000 of income (beside Social Security) you can not claim them as a dependent.  In most cases, if they have less than $4000 of income (besides Social Security), they do not need to file a tax return.

[tonyjgn]

They just receive social security income.

[SweetieJean]

Hoewever, you can also claim HOH if you have another qualifying dependent (such as your child) living with you. And the $4,000 reference for 2015 goes up to $4,050 for 2016.

[tonyjgn]

Thanks for all the replies!

[SweetieJean]

If Social Security is their only income, there is no need for them to even file a return, except to get back any withholdings.