Head of Household

Am I eligible for Head of Household (HOH) filing status if my girlfriend lives with me all year and does not work and I can claim her as a dependent?

tks

bw

Reply to
bh2os
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My instinct says no. But the rules are confusing.

She is not your qualifying child (includes your own children even if adopted, brother/sister, descendants of these). See page 18 of the

1040 instructions.

She could be a qualifying relative (includes any person who lived with you and who made less than $3,650) so check all the rules on page 19 of the 1040 instructions to be sure.

But in head of household they say

Test 2. You paid over half the cost of keeping up a home in which you lived and in which one of the following also lived for more than half of the year (if half or less, see Exception to time lived with you on this page).

  1. Any person whom you can claim as a dependent. But do not include:
  2. Your qualifying child (as defined in Step 1 on page 17) whom you claim as your dependent based on the rule for Children of divorced or separated parents that begins on page 18, 2. Any person who is your dependent only because he or she lived with you for all of 2009, or

Rule (2) above seems to disqualify you from claiming head of household. But the rule is confusing because to be a dependent they have to meet many rules, which the time rule being one of them.

Reply to
removeps-groups

He fails the test because an unrelated person is not a qualifying person for filing as head of household even if the person is a dependent.

Reply to
Alan

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