An eligible
foster child is a child for head of household purposes is a child placed
with you by an authorized placement agency or by a judgment, decree, or
other order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
Generally, if
two or more people keep up the same home, only one of the people could pay
more than half the costs and qualify for the head of household filing
status. When two or more families occupy the same dwelling, each family may
be treated as keeping up a separate home if each family maintains separate
finances and neither contributes to the support of the other family.
The taxpayer
who provides more than half the cost of maintaining a separate home is
treated as keeping up that separate home. To determine whether you paid more
than half the cost of keeping up your home do not include costs of clothing
and vacations, costs for education and transportation, or costs for medical
treatment and life insurance.
There are rules
for determining the support of the home and there are rules for determining
support of an individual to meet the support test. The items considered to
be support items for upkeep of the home are home things such as electricity,
gardening, cleaning, maid service and rent or mortgage. Items for support of
a dependent are items that are strictly just for the dependent in meeting
the support test. These items that only pertain to the individual are items
such as clothing, vacations, medical insurance, education and any medical
treatment. Cost of food pertains to the support of the household, unless the
food is specific for the dependent. This could be the case when the
dependent needs special food due to allergies or for medical reasons. Other
than that, food is considered a household expense that goes toward the
calculations you make for support of the home. This is similar to buying a
television set for your child and your treatment of this television set
depends on where in the house you hook it up to. If you place the set in the
living room, then the TV is household expense that goes in the calculation
of support of the home. However, if the set is placed in the dependents
room, then it can be considered in the calculation of support for the child.
If someone
lived with you for exactly six months does not mean that the person lived
with you more than half the year for head of household purposes. The rule is
the the individual must have lived with you for more than half of the year.
If the child lived with you exactly six months and exactly six months with
another person, you cannot go choosing who will be able to claim head of
household for that child. The rule is that the child must have lived with
you for more than six months.
If you have
joint custody of your child, to qualify for head of household filing status,
you must still meet all the requirements for the head of household filing
status. You must have a child that must have lived with you for more than
half the year. In addition, you must have paid more than half the cost of
keeping up your home for that qualifying individual. You must also have
provided more than half the support for the child such as clothing,
entertainment and any expenses that pertain just to the dependent's support.
If you were
married as of the last day of the year, and you did not live with your
spouse at any time during the last six months of the year, to determine how
many days your home was your qualifying person's main home, add together
half the number of days that you, your spouse, and your qualifying person
lived together in your home. Then you add together all the days that you and
your qualifying person lived together in your home without your spouse.
If you were
married as of the last day of the year and you lived with your spouse at any
time during the last six months of the year, you cannot qualify for the head
of household filing status.
