Filing Head of Household When You Are Married

[billypilgrim2]

I am getting married next year and my husband and I will be keeping our separate homes that we each own and living apart, as our children from our previous marriages go to separate school districts. Can we each still file as head of household after we are married? 

[Ruth C-L]

Hi there. My name is Ruth, CPA, Esq. If you live separately and each have different qualifying dependents, you could both file head of household. The key items to remember are ensuring you each claim different dependents and have different addresses.

[billypilgrim2]

Thank you. That is what we thought but we had a tax professional tell us that our only options were Married Filing Jointly and Married Filing Separately even though we don't live together, have never lived together, and don't plan to live together after marriage. This was helpful - thanks!

[Ruth C-L]

Happy to help!

[DashonnonH]

Hi billypilgram2, your situation does qualify for head of household status. The information below is from a turbo tax article. I will attach full article to this reply

You can file as head-of-household even if you’re married but if you have a spouse, it’s likely more beneficial tax-wise to file jointly. However, if you are filing separately, you can claim head-of-household status if you meet these three criteria:

• Your spouse did not live with you for the last six months of the year.
• You provided the main home of the qualifying child and paid for more than half the home costs.
• You are claiming your child as a dependent.

https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-deductions-and-credits-2/your-guide-to-filing-taxes-as-the-head...

[billypilgrim2]

Would the Roth IRA rule of not being able to contribute to a Roth IRA if you make over a certain amount be based on our single incomes or our combined incomes if we each filed HOH?

[Ruth C-L]

It would be based on your single incomes as reported on your respective 1040s. Here is a handy table for tax year 2023: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/amount-of-roth-ira-contributions-that-you-can-make-for-2023

[JaredS_CPA]

If you qualify for HOH by not living together for the whole year, you would be subject to the single filing income limits for a Roth IRA.

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/amount-of-roth-ira-contributions-that-you-can-make-for-2023