Single vs head of household

[currida]

I am not married to my girlfriend, but we do live together.  We have 1 baby.   i am giving my girlfriend the right to claim the baby as a dependent.  I make the majority of income in the home (and paid the majority of expenses)  and by having the baby be a dependent of my girlfriend she qualifies for the Earned Income Credit.  Question is what is my Filing Status - single or head of household?   The IRS interactive website says I should file single, Turbo is telling me I should file head of house hold. 

[Hal_Al]

You file single.  You must be claiming a related person, as a  dependent, to be Head of Household.

If you and the other parent live together, only one of you can claim the child for any tax benefit. The TurboTax interview is confusing (it's designed for divorced parents, who are allowed to split the child). The second parent  (you) should not enter the child, at all.

If you and the other parent live together, either one of you (but not both) may claim the child. You may decide between you which one will claim the child. Only if you can’t agree, do the IRS tie breaker rules apply, to see who has first choice. It may be worthwhile to prepare trial returns, both ways,  to see which way the family comes out best. This tool may be useful: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/?s=1.

[currida]

Thanks for your reply.  I just want to question one thing related to it.  Under the Head of Household rules I thought, if you are dealing with a child, the child needed to be a "qualifying child" .  A child is a qualifying child if they are your son or daughter who lived with you more than half the year and was single. The in our case the child is under 2.  If the child meets the criteria they become a "qualified person" for purposes of the Head of Household filing status whether or not you can claim the child as a dependent.  So in our case, the child would not be my dependent (because I assigned right to the mother) but would be a "qualifying child" to me for purposes of filing Head of Household.  Can you tell me where my thinking is off?  

[Hal_Al]

A child being a "qualified person" for purposes of the Head of Household filing status whether or not you can claim the child as a dependent, is a special rule for divorced and separated parents.  It is not available to parents who live together. 

[currida]

thanks so in our case does anyone classify as head of household or is it the mother? Remember the mother provided less than half of the support.  

[Hal_Al]

Nobody can claim Head of Household. You can't because you don't have a dependent.  She can't because she did not provide more than half the household support.  You each file as single.