 Head of household. So this is the other status that's kind of like what's available if you're not married single being the worst Head of household being a step up and then the qualified widow or widower or whatever they're calling it now Would be a step up from there. They're surviving spouse or whatever So you can check the head of household box at the top of form 1040 or 1040 SR If you are unmarried and provide a home for certain other persons You are considered unmarried for this purpose if any of the following applies You were legally separated according to your state law under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance at the end of 2022 so again, we're talking and the end of the of the year 2022 so if you were married and then and then you're separated Then you might be able to go back to either single or head of household head of household would be better But head of household is typically dependent on a dependent Which is often like the confusion point meaning who has who's gonna claim the dependent and In custody issues and that kind of stuff is where the gray area comes into play. So but if at the end of 2022 Your divorce wasn't final and inter interlocker every degree and interlock to every decree You are considered married. So you are married but lived apart from your spouse for the last six months of 2022 and you meet the other rules under married persons who live apart later So that's an again one of the kind of gray areas. You're like, okay You're married, but you've been living apart for the six months If you're not technically divorced, can you still qualify to file? you know head of household possibly in That case so you can dive into more detailed rules if you're in that kind of situation So you are married and your spouse was a non-resident alien at any time during the year and the election to treat the alien spouse As a resident alien is not made So check the head of household box only if you are unmarried or considered unmarried and either test one or test two Applies. So we've got test one. You paid over half the cost of keeping up a home. That was a main home for One more time you paid over half the cost of keeping up a home That was the main home for all of 2022 of your parent whom you can claim as a dependent Except under a multiple support agreement see who qualifies as your dependent later your parents didn't have to Your parents didn't have to live with you. Okay. So typically head of household. We usually have a Dependent involved now the dependent usually that you would think well that would be a parent generally or it would be a child and The case of a parent usually you've got the qualifications or in a dependent in general Usually you've got the requirement that they live with you But with a parent you could have an an exception in that instance So one more time test one you paid over half the cost of keeping up a home That was the main home for all of 2022 of your parent whom you can claim as a dependent So you have the cost there can be claimed as a dependent except under a multiple support agreement So then you can go to the more instructions if you have more questions on that and we might dive into that later Your parents don't have to live with you So that's kind of the exception to the general rule when we're talking about dependents to qualify for head of household which Usually applies for a child test to and remember when we're looking at these tests It's it's useful oftentimes to remember are we talking about do we have to have both of these tests met or Either of these test methods which is an and or or and notice we have an or here So either test one or test to test one related to the parent generally as a dependent test to the child So test two you paid over half the cost of keeping up a home in which you lived and In which one of the following also lived for more than half of the year if half or less You can see exception to time lived with you later So this can be somewhat confusing sometimes because if you're looking at the child in terms of Whether or not they're gonna allow you to file for head of household You often have that split custody issue which then the question is Did they live for you for exactly half or more than half and so on with regards to the the ability to claim the child and possibly Increase the status filing status from head of household. I'm sorry from single to head of household So number one any person whom you can claim as a dependent But don't include a your child whom you claim as a dependent because of the rule for Children of divorce or other separate parents under who qualifies as your dependent later Be any person who is your dependent only because the person lived with you for all of 2022 or see any person you claimed as a dependent under a multiple support agreement See who qualifies as your dependent later. So once again Any person whom you can claim as a dependent and then you've got these kind of somewhat more gray area somewhat more random kind of Exceptions on down below number two your unmarried qualifying child who isn't your dependent number three You're married qualifying child who isn't your dependent only because you can be claimed as a dependent on someone else's return So now again, you got this kind of unusual situation They would be a dependent of yours except you're in a situation where you can be claimed as a dependent on someone else's return So they might not be an actual dependent in that case But may still allow you to qualify for the head of household number four your qualifying child who even though you are the Custodial parent isn't your dependent because of the rule for children of divorce or separate parents under who qualifies as your dependent We might talk about that rule a little bit later So once again a lot of caveats to this rule the general idea being that you have a qualifying person That rule number one it could be your parent which possibly you don't have to have as much strict of the rule in terms of them living with you And then rule number two is going to be the other dependent oftentimes a child, but not necessarily Let's read through it one more time test two You paid over half the cost of keeping up a home in which you lived and in which one of the following also lived For more than half of the year more than half of the year if half or less see exception to time lived with you later number one any person whom you can claim as a dependent so they lived with you and They're dependent on the tax return, which means we can go into the rules Which we will later of someone who qualifies as a dependent But don't include a your child whom you claim as you are dependent because of the rule for children of divorce Re-separate parents under who qualifies as your dependent more of an unusual rule We'll talk possibly diving into that later be any person who is your dependent only because the person lived with you for all of 2022 and then see any person You claimed as a dependent under a multiple support agreement which again We can see who qualifies as your dependent later for that more of an unusual situation number two Your unmarried qualifying child Child who isn't your dependent so they're a qualifying child not your dependent in that case But a qualifying child so now we can get into the definitions which we'll talk about later What is the qualifying child and what is it dependent and then three you're married qualifying child usually by the way If they're a qualifying child they will be your dependent oftentimes, right? That would be kind of an unusual Situation three you're married qualifying child who isn't your dependent only because you can be claimed as a dependent on someone else's Return so they would be a dependent and therefore push you to head of household But they can't be claimed a dependent because you could be claimed as a dependent somewhere else So therefore they might still push you ahead of household even though you're not claiming them as a dependent weird situation and For your qualifying child who even though you you are the custodial parent isn't your dependent Because of the rule of children child divorced so again That's an unusual kind of situation with that gray area in a divorced situation so in the situation of a divorce Unfortunately oftentimes these arguments happen with regards to the child the child could Impact the filing status if they're the only child if they're one child involved pushing someone up from single to head of household Which could have a significant impact on the taxes and of course? There's other credits and whatnot that could be involved with who claims of the child So if the child isn't claimed as your dependent enter the child's name in the entry space below the filing status checkbox So in these unusual situations where you're saying the child is Helping to move the filing status from single to head of household But I'm not claiming them as a dependent because I have one of these unusual situations I still need to note that on the tax return So the IRS sees that that the requirement has been met even though the child isn't a dependent in that particular case