Head of household is a filing status for an unmarried taxpayer who keeps up a home for a qualifying person, and it carries a larger standard deduction and more favourable rate schedule than single. It is defined in one long sentence of the Code, and the sentence is built as a gate followed by a choice of two doors.
For purposes of this subtitle, an individual shall be considered a head of a household if, and only if, such individual is not married at the close of his taxable year, is not a surviving spouse as defined in subsection (a), and either meets the household test in subparagraph (A) or the one in subparagraph (B) (26 U.S.C. 2(b)(1)).
Three things are doing work there. The opening scope words limit the definition to subtitle A. The phrase if, and only if makes the two negative conditions absolute rather than presumptive. And surviving spouse is tested before head of household rather than alongside it, which is why the statuses are a sequence and not a menu. That ordering is worked through in filing status, and the status it defers to in qualifying surviving spouse.
Door One: A Household That Is Somebody’s Principal Home
The first route asks where the taxpayer lives and who lives there. The individual maintains as his home a household which constitutes for more than one-half of the taxable year the principal place of abode, as a member of that household, of either a qualifying child or another dependent (26 U.S.C. 2(b)(1)(A)).
The qualifying child limb carries an exclusion with two conditions that have to hold together. It reaches a qualifying child of the individual as defined in section 152(c), determined without regard to section 152(e), but not if that child is married at the close of the taxpayer’s taxable year and is not a dependent of the individual by reason of section 152(b)(2) or 152(b)(3), or both (26 U.S.C. 2(b)(1)(A)(i)).
Read that as a conjunctive test, because it is one. A married qualifying child does not disqualify the taxpayer on its own; the child must also fail to be the taxpayer’s dependent for the stated reason. Collapsing it into “a married child does not count” states a rule the Code does not.
The other limb is narrower than the first and depends on an actual deduction. It reaches any other person who is a dependent of the taxpayer, if the taxpayer is entitled to a deduction for the taxable year for that person under section 151 (26 U.S.C. 2(b)(1)(A)(ii)). Note the asymmetry against the qualifying child limb, which carries no such entitlement condition of its own.
Door Two: A Parent Who Lives Somewhere Else
The second route is the one most summaries omit, and it breaks the pattern of the first.
The individual maintains a household which constitutes for the taxable year the principal place of abode of the father or mother of the taxpayer, if the taxpayer is entitled to a deduction for the taxable year for that father or mother under section 151 (26 U.S.C. 2(b)(1)(B)).
Two differences from door one, both deliberate. Nothing here requires the taxpayer to live in that household, so a parent in their own home or in a care home can support the status. And the period is for the taxable year rather than for more than one-half of it, which is a longer requirement, not a shorter one.
The Cost Rule Sits Under Both Doors
Neither route works on residence alone. For purposes of that paragraph, an individual shall be considered as maintaining a household only if over half of the cost of maintaining the household during the taxable year is furnished by that individual (26 U.S.C. 2(b)(1)).
It is written as a flush sentence attached to the whole of paragraph (1), so it qualifies subparagraph (A) and subparagraph (B) alike. The threshold is over half, not half, and it is about cost furnished rather than about who holds the lease.
When Somebody Counts as Married for This Test
Paragraph (2) supplies three rules, and the middle one is the reason a great many head of household returns exist at all. For purposes of that subsection, an individual who is legally separated from his spouse under a decree of divorce or of separate maintenance shall not be considered as married; a taxpayer shall be considered as not married at the close of his taxable year if at any time during the taxable year his spouse is a nonresident alien; and a taxpayer shall be considered as married at the close of his taxable year if his spouse, other than a spouse described in the preceding rule, died during the taxable year (26 U.S.C. 2(b)(2)).
The nonresident alien spouse rule is triggered by the position at any time during the taxable year, not at the close of it, which is a different test from everything around it.
A fourth route out of married status sits in its own subsection. For purposes of that part, an individual shall be treated as not married at the close of the taxable year if that individual is so treated under the provisions of section 7703(b) (26 U.S.C. 2(c)). The three conditions section 7703(b) imposes on a married taxpayer living apart are set out in filing status.
Three Limitations That Override Everything Above
Paragraph (3) opens with the word that makes it a trump card. Notwithstanding paragraph (1), for purposes of this subtitle a taxpayer shall not be considered to be a head of a household if at any time during the taxable year he is a nonresident alien, or by reason of an individual who would not be a dependent for the taxable year but for subparagraph (H) of section 152(d)(2) or paragraph (3) of section 152(d) (26 U.S.C. 2(b)(3)).
The first limitation is about the taxpayer and it is absolute for the whole year. The second is subtler: a person who only qualifies as a dependent through one of two named provisions cannot be the qualifying person. Whether a taxpayer is a nonresident alien for this purpose is a separate test, set out in nonresident alien.
Common Questions
An individual who is not married at the close of the taxable year, is not a surviving spouse, furnishes over half the cost of maintaining a household, and either keeps a home that was the principal place of abode of a qualifying child or other dependent for more than half the year, or maintains a household that was the principal place of abode of a parent for whom the taxpayer is entitled to a section 151 deduction (26 U.S.C. 2(b)(1)). All of the first three, and then either of the last two.
Sometimes, and only through a specified route. A legally separated taxpayer is not considered married for this test, and a taxpayer whose spouse was a nonresident alien at any time during the year is treated as not married (26 U.S.C. 2(b)(2)). Separately, a married taxpayer living apart who meets the section 7703(b) conditions is treated as not married at the close of the year (26 U.S.C. 2(c)).
For the qualifying child or other dependent route, yes: the household has to be that person’s principal place of abode, as a member of the household, for more than half the year (26 U.S.C. 2(b)(1)(A)). For the parent route, no: that subparagraph requires only that the taxpayer maintains a household which is the parent’s principal place of abode for the taxable year (26 U.S.C. 2(b)(1)(B)).
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