Question on Head of Household - non-dependent child

[hzhangab]

Say a woman is single and has a child. The child is a full-time student, under 24 yo, not married, and did not pay more than half of his expenses. The woman does not have a custody agreement with the child's other parent, and the child lives with the woman, and the woman is letting the other parent claim the child does year. 

Those information, if put into TurboTax, would make the woman's filing status single instead of Head of Household. I cannot see the reason why. It seems to me that the child is qualifying, even not a dependent.

[Texas Roger]

You must enter the information about the child on your tax return including the fact that the child lived with you more than half the year (at least 7 months). If the child was away at school, temporary absences such as this are considered living with you.  If you enter all the information about your child correctly including the fact that you are allowing the other parent to claim the child's dependency, then TurboTax should recommend that you file Head of Household.

Here are the requirements to file as Head of Household: 

1. You are not married or “considered unmarried” on the last day of the year. You are considered unmarried if you lived apart from your spouse the entire last 6 months of the year.
2. If "considered unmarried" you file a separate return from your spouse.
3. You paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the year.
4. You have a qualifying child (whether or not you claim the dependency exemption) or you claim a dependency exemption for a “qualifying person”  who is related to you and who lived with you in the home for more than half the year. An exception is a parent does not have to live with you to be a qualifying person.

[hzhangab]

@Texas Roger  Thank you for your reply. I agree with you that that information, if entered, should set the woman to HOH status. But it does not.

[Texas Roger]

Try deleting the child and entering the child again. Sometimes this will fix the problem.