My wife is a homemaker and has no income. do i file as head of household and claim her as a dependent or married filing jointly and a dependent

[cajunshawnpierre]

I am married and we have 1 minor child,

[sampsonmines]

Your wife will not be your dependent.  You will just file as Married filing joint.  There are two types of exemptions (1) personal exemption and (2) dependency exemption. The exemption is worth the same, just has different names. You will get one personal exemption for yourself and one personal exemption for your spouse on your joint return.