Tax Credit Head of Household

Head of Household Definition

A tax filing status that can be used by a married or unmarried person who maintains a household for a dependent or nondependent relative, and provides more than half of the dependent's financial support.

Heads of household are usually entitled to preferential tax treatment. A head of household must be unmarried unless his/her spouse files an individual tax return and has not lived with the head of household for more than six of the last 12 month's.

An unmarried individual who is able to file income taxes using the Head of Household filing status will typically receive a larger income tax return than an individual filing as single. You must be substantially providing support for another person for more than half of the year.

Usually the person you are providing for is a child who lives in your home, but others may qualify as well. It may be your child, grandchild, or other relative who lives in that home for more than half the year, or a parent whether or not he or she lives in your home.

Anyone claiming children that are not legally their dependents, may be subject to fines and penalties. If more than one person claims the same dependent, the IRS has a set of criteria to determine which person will be allowed to claim the dependent, and the Head of Household filing status because of that dependent. The other individual's claim will be disallowed, and that individual will pay the higher tax rate of the single filer.

Head of household is an IRS filing status that you can use if you are unmarried or considered unmarried on the last day of a tax year ..

The advantage of filing as head of household is that you can take a higher standard deduction than if you filed as a single taxpayer and you owe less federal income tax than you would as a single, assuming all other details were the same.

Filing as head of household also means you qualify for certain deductions and credits that would not be available to you if you used the married filing separate returns status.

Head of Household
The filing status used by an unmarried taxpayer who pays over half the cost of maintaining their home that is the principal residence for over half the tax year.

Taxpayers may receive $300 for each qualifying child. Payments could be less, depending on tax liability and Adjusted Gross Income.

In most cases, payments will range from $300 to $600 for individuals and $600 to $1200 for joint filers.

Phase out reduction begins at $75,000 for single filers and $150,000 for joint filers.