Head of household
A filing status an unmarried child supporting a parent can reach without the parent living with them, if three separate conditions are all met.
What it means
It requires being unmarried at the close of the year and not a surviving spouse.
Every route but one requires the qualifying person to live in the taxpayer's home. The parent route does not: the home may be maintained for a parent who lives elsewhere.
That route is not simply paying a parent's rent. The regulation asks for three things together: the household must be the parent's principal place of abode for the year, the taxpayer must furnish more than half the cost of keeping it up, and the taxpayer must be entitled to a dependency deduction for that parent.
The last condition is the one people miss, and it turns on the parent's own income and on support. The regulation's own example fails a taxpayer who maintains a home for a widowed mother if her gross income reaches the exemption amount, or if he does not furnish more than half of her support for the year.
Whether any of it applies to a particular family is a question for a tax preparer. This entry is here so the shape of the test is recognizable, not so it can be self-applied.
Why it matters
It is worth more than it looks, and the parent exception is unique — an assisted living apartment or the parent's own house can qualify.
Somebody legally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance is not treated as married for it.
When you are likely to meet it
- When an unmarried adult child is paying most of the cost of where a parent lives.
Related terms
Official sources
The authority this page describes, at the agency that publishes it. Sahvelo does not restate a rule from a secondary source.