After a divorce, figuring out the most mundane things can be difficult. Tax filing is one of those things. Filing head of household is the most preferred, because of the reduced tax rate, and greater amounts in some deductions. However, only one person of the now divorced couple can claim head of household, and claim the pair's children as dependents. Here's how to determine who gets to claim head of household after a divorce.
Instructions
* 1. Determine how long your spouse and the children have lived within what is now your home in the tax year. Children must live with you for more than half the year. Your spouse must have been out of the home for more than six months in the tax year, if the two of you were legally married on the last day of the previous tax year.
* 2. Check your divorce agreement for custodial arrangements. Some custody agreements spell out which spouse gets to claim the children as dependents. Otherwise, the custodial parent is allowed to file head of household, even if the other spouse claims the children as dependents.
* 3. Audit your receipts for the year. To file head of household, you must also have paid more than 50 percent of the living costs for the home. This must be the same home in which the children have lived in for more than half the tax year.
* 4. Double-check the qualifying child requirements for tax filings. According to IRS rules, the child must be your birth child, "stepchild, foster child, sibling or stepsibling or descendant of one of these." The child must live with you for more than half the year. He or she must be younger than 19 (or 24 if in college full time). You also must have provided more than half the child's living expenses for the tax year.
* 5. Follow the rules for claiming a qualifying child if there is no agreement in place, and if both spouses want to claim the children and head of household status. In addition to the rules above, the IRS could allow the parent with the highest adjusted gross income (AGI) to claim the dependents as head of household
