Some taxpayers qualify for more favorable “head of household” tax filing status

When preparing your federal income tax return, your filing status will be one of the following: single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, head of household, or qualifying surviving spouse (formerly qualifying widow(er)). Filing as head of household is generally more favorable than filing as single because it usually provides a larger standard deduction and more favorable tax brackets.

For example, for 2024 the standard deduction is 14,600 for single filers and 21,900 for head of household filers, and for 2025 it is 15,750 for single filers and 23,625 for head of household filers. The exact dollar amounts change each year due to inflation adjustments, so always check the current IRS standard deduction table for the year you are filing.

To be eligible to file as head of household, you generally must be unmarried or “considered unmarried,” pay more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the year, and have a qualifying person who lived with you for more than half the year (with a special rule for parents described below). The home must be the main home of your qualifying child or certain other relatives whom you can claim as a dependent, subject to the IRS rules on qualifying children and qualifying relatives.

Qualifying child rules

A “qualifying child” generally must:

• Live with you for more than half the year.

• Be your child, stepchild, adopted child, foster child, sibling, stepsibling, or a descendant of any of these.

• Be under age 19 at the end of the year, or under age 24 if a full‑time student, or any age if permanently and totally disabled.

• Not provide more than half of their own support for the year.

Additional conditions apply: a person is not your qualifying child if they file a joint return with their spouse (other than only to claim a refund) or are not a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or U.S. resident (subject to limited exceptions). If a child could be a qualifying child of more than one taxpayer, special tiebreaker rules decide who can claim the child and who can use the child for head‑of‑household status.

If parents are divorced or separated, a child can still be a qualifying child of the custodial parent for head‑of‑household purposes even if that parent releases the dependency claim to the noncustodial parent, as long as the child lives with the custodial parent more than half the year and other tests are met.

Maintaining a household

You are treated as “maintaining a household” if you pay more than half the cost of keeping up the home for the year. Costs that count include:

• Rent, mortgage interest, property taxes, utilities, and insurance on the home.

• Repairs and upkeep of the home and food eaten in the home.

Expenses that do not count toward maintaining the household include clothing, education, medical care, life insurance, and transportation.

Special rule for a parent

You can qualify as head of household if you pay more than half the cost of keeping up a home for your parent, even if you do not live with the parent. In that case, the parent’s home (for example, your parent’s own house or certain types of care facilities) is the household you maintain, and you must be able to claim your parent as a dependent under the IRS rules.

Marital status and “considered unmarried”

You generally must be unmarried, or “considered unmarried,” on the last day of the year to qualify as head of household. You are “considered unmarried” if all of the following apply: you file a separate return, you paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the year, your spouse did not live in your home during the last six months of the year, your home was the main home of your qualifying child for more than half the year, and you can claim that child as a dependent (with limited exceptions).

If you are married and do not meet the “considered unmarried” rules, your choices are generally married filing jointly or married filing separately, and you cannot claim head‑of‑household status. If you have lived apart from your spouse for the last six months of the year, have a qualifying child living with you, and pay more than half the cost of keeping up the home, you may be treated as unmarried and may qualify as head of household if the other requirements are met.[13][11][12][17]

Qualifying surviving spouse (qualifying widow(er))

If your spouse died, you may be eligible to use the qualifying surviving spouse filing status (previously called qualifying widow(er)) for the two tax years following the year of death. To use this status, you generally must not have remarried, must have a dependent child living with you for the year, and must pay more than half the cost of keeping up your home, and you then use the same tax rates and standard deduction as married filing jointly, which are usually more favorable than head‑of‑household rates.

Contact us at Satty. We can answer questions if you’d like to discuss a particular situation or would like additional information about whether someone qualifies as your dependent.

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