How Do You Know if Your Taxes Are Being Audited

Editor's Note: This commodity was originally published on January 29, 2014.

Head of household is a filing status for unmarried or single taxpayers who take maintained a home for a qualifying person, such every bit a child or relative. This filing status provides a larger standard deduction and more than generous taxation rates for computing federal income tax than the Single filing status.

You lot know you lot are the centre of your household, but would the IRS consider you the head of household? To file as HOH for 2017, in that location are sure rules yous must run across:

1. You must be unmarried or "considered unmarried" on the last day of the tax year.

Marital condition is always determined the final solar day of the year. Therefore if you lot were not married at all during the year or have a permanent courtroom order of legal separation, divorce, or split up maintenance at midnight on December 31, you are single and encounter this requirement.

A married taxpayer needs to run across the "considered unmarried" rules to file HOH. To be "considered unmarried" for taxation purposes in gild to file as HOH y'all must encounter all of the following requirements:

• You must file a divide return from your spouse.
• You must have provided more than half the cost of maintaining your dwelling house for the tax year.
• The home must have been the principal place of dwelling house for you and your dependent son, girl, or eligible foster child (that meets the qualifying kid or qualifying relative tests to exist claimed as your dependent) for more than than half the tax yr. Simply don't worry, this volition include a kid who would exist your dependent except that the exemption was released to the noncustodial parent.
• Your spouse must not take lived in the home at any time during the last six months of the tax twelvemonth. This does not include those situations in which the spouse is living away from the home temporarily (job assignment, military deployment, temporary incarceration).

2. You lot must have paid more than half of the toll of maintaining the household for the year.

In gild to file as head of household, you lot must have paid more than half the cost of maintaining a household for the twelvemonth. This could be different from the support tests you use to figure if y'all can merits a dependent. The costs included when making this conclusion include:

• Rent.
• Mortgage interest.
• Real estate taxes.
• Insurance on the domicile.
• Property taxes.
• Repairs.
• Utilities.
• Nutrient eaten in the abode.

Do non include the costs of the following items:

• Clothing.
• Pedagogy.
• Medical handling or medical insurance premiums.
• Vacations.
• Life insurance.
• Food consumed outside of the home (for example, in restaurants).
• Mortgage principal.
• Transportation.
• Rental value of a home endemic by the taxpayer.
• Services provided by the taxpayer or other members of the household.

If the full amount paid by the taxpayer is more than the corporeality others paid, including amounts paid from regime assist programs or child support, then the taxpayer meets the requirement of paying more half the price of maintaining the household for the year

One question that gets asked often is "Can there be more than 1 HOH at an address?" And the reply is "Mayhap." There can only be one HOH per household since this requirement is that you paid 51% of the full household expenses. Only in that location could potentially be more than than one household per home. If there is more one household and each taxpayer paid more than fifty% of their corresponding households, information technology is possible to have more than one taxpayer meet the HOH filing status even if they live at the same place.

Consider a taxpayer who moves in with a friend and each has children. The taxpayer and friend accept their own bedrooms and bathrooms, don't share groceries, don't have vacations together, and each pays rent and utilities. Here, it also seems that there are ii separate households, and both the taxpayer and friend can file using the HOH filing status if each otherwise qualifies. Simply each would need to prove all the HOH requirements are met.

3. You must have maintained a household for either of the post-obit:

A qualifying kid or qualifying relative who lived with you for more than half the yr and you can claim as a dependent. These relationships include:Your child, stepchild, adopted child, eligible foster child, or a descendant of any of these:

• Your brother, sis, one-half-blood brother, one-half-sister, or a son or daughter of whatever of these,
• Your step-father or pace-female parent, stepbrother, stepsister,
• A blood brother or sister of your father or mother
• Your grandparent (simply not a foster parent)
• Your son-in-police force, daughter-in-law, begetter-in-police force, mother in law, or sister-in-law.

Or your female parent or father for the entire twelvemonth and who you may claim as a dependent, regardless of whether they alive in your aforementioned home.

Remember, if yous are planning on filing as Head of Household because yous think you meet the criteria to be considered unmarried for tax purposes, the qualifying person is limited to your son or girl or eligible foster child.

Looking ahead to 2018, taxpayers will not claim exemptions for children and other dependents. However, they volition still be required to maintain a home for a qualifying person. We expect that the IRS guidance will be modified slightly to reverberate the new taxation law.

Caput of Household Questions

Have additional questions about filing statuses or demand help filing your return? Our Tax Pros speak the tricky language of taxes and are committed to helping you better empathise your taxes.

Make an Appointment with 1 of our Taxation Pros today.

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Source: https://www.hrblock.com/tax-center/filing/personal-tax-planning/what-is-head-of-household-status/