Below you will find information to help you determine if you are eligible to file your tax return with the filing status of Head of Household. If necessary, review IRS Publication 17 Your Federal Income Tax (For Individuals) for additional details before making a final determination. You can also go to the IRS Interactive Tax Assistant (ITA) What is my filing status? webpage.
If you qualify to file as head of household, your tax rate usually will be lower than the rates for single or married filing separately. You will also receive a higher standard deduction than if you file as single or married filing separately.
Per IRS Publication 17, page 21:
In general, your filing status depends on whether you are considered unmarried or married.
Unmarried persons. You are considered unmarried for the whole year if, on the last day of your tax year, you are either:
State law governs whether you are married or legally separated under a divorce or separate maintenance decree.
You may be able to file as head of household if you meet all of the following requirements.
Considered Unmarried
To qualify for head of household status, you must be either unmarried or considered unmarried on the last day of the year. You are considered unmarried on the last day of the tax year if you meet all of the following tests.
CAUTION! If you were considered married for part of the year and lived in a community property state (listed earlier under Married Filing Separately), special rules may apply in determining your income and expenses. See Pub. 555 for more information.
Nonresident alien spouse. You are considered unmarried for head of household purposes if your spouse was a nonresident alien at any time during the year and you don’t choose to treat your nonresident spouse as a resident alien. However, your spouse isn't a qualifying person for head of household purposes. You must have another qualifying person and meet the other tests to be eligible to file as head of household.
Choice to treat spouse as resident. You are considered married if you choose to treat your spouse as a resident alien. See Chapter 1 of IRS Publication 519 for further details.
Per IRS Publication 17, page 24:
Special rule for parent. If your qualifying person is your father or mother, you may be eligible to file as head of household even if your father or mother doesn't live with you. However, you must be able to claim your father or mother as a dependent. Also, you must pay more than half of the cost of keeping up a home that was the main home for the entire year for your father or mother.
If you pay more than half of the cost of keeping your parent in a rest home or home for the elderly, that counts as paying more than half of the cost of keeping up your parent's main home.
Note that any link in the information above is updated each year automatically and will take you to the most recent version of the webpage or document at the time it is accessed.