You may be able to file as head of household if you are unmarried or considered unmarried on the last day of the year. In addition, you must have paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year. In most cases, a qualifying person must have lived with you in the home for more than half the year.

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.

How to file. If you file as head of household, you can use either Form 1040A or Form 1040. Indicate your choice of this filing status by checking the box on line 4 of either form. Use the Head of a household column of the Tax Table or Schedule Z of the Tax Rate Schedules, to figure your tax.

Considered Unmarried

You are considered unmarried on the last day of the year if you are legally separated from your spouse, according to your state law, under a divorce or separate maintenance decree.

You are also considered unmarried on the last day of the tax year if you meet all of the following tests.

1. You file a separate return.
2. You paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the tax year.
3. Your spouse did not live in your home during the last 6 months of the tax year. Your spouse is considered to live with you if he or she is temporarily absent due to special circumstances. See Temporary absences, later.
4. Your home was, for more than half the year, the main home of your child, stepchild, adopted child, or foster child for whom you can claim an exemption. (See Home of qualifying person, later.) However, you can still meet this test if you cannot claim an exemption for your child only because:
   1. You state in writing to the noncustodial parent that he or she may claim an exemption for the child, or
   2. The noncustodial parent provides at least $600 support for the dependent and claims an exemption for the dependent under a pre-1985 divorce or separation agreement.

The rules to claim an exemption for a dependent are explained in chapter 3.

If you were considered married for part of the year and lived in a community property state (listed earlier under Separate Returns), special rules may apply in determining your income and expenses. See Publication 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 do not choose to treat your nonresident spouse as a resident alien. Your spouse is not considered your relative. You must have another qualifying relative and meet the other tests to be eligible to file as a head of household. However, you are considered married if you choose to treat your spouse as a resident alien.

Qualifying Person

See Table 2-1 to see who is a qualifying person.

Home of qualifying person. Generally, the relative must live with you for more than half the year to be a qualifying person.

Special rule for parent. You may be eligible to file as head of household even if the parent for whom you can claim an exemption does not live with you. You must pay more than half the cost of keeping up a home that was the main home for the entire year for your father or mother. You are keeping up a main home for your father or mother if you pay more than half the cost of keeping your parent in a rest home or home for the elderly.

Temporary absences. You and your relative are considered to live together even if one or both of you are temporarily absent from your household due to special circumstances such as illness, education, business, vacation, and military service. It must be reasonable to assume that the absent person will return to the household after the temporary absence. You must continue to maintain the household during the absence.

Death or birth. You may be eligible to file as head of household if the individual who qualifies you for this filing status is born or dies during the year. You must have provided more than half of the cost of keeping up a home that was the individual's main home for more than half the year, or, if less, the period during which the individual lived.

Example. You are unmarried. Your mother, for whom you can claim an exemption, lived in an apartment by herself. She died on September 2. The cost of the upkeep of her apartment for the year until her death was $6,000. You paid $4,000 and your brother paid $2,000. Your brother made no other payments toward your mother's support. Your mother had no income. Because you paid more than half the cost of keeping up your mother's apartment from January 1 until her death, and you can claim an exemption for her, you can file as a head of household.

Keeping Up a Home

To qualify for head of household status, you must pay more than half of the cost of keeping up a home for the year. You can determine whether you paid more than half of the cost of keeping up a home by using the Cost of Maintaining a Household worksheet, shown later.

Costs you include. Include in the cost of upkeep expenses such as rent, mortgage interest, real estate taxes, insurance on the home, repairs, utilities, and food eaten in the home.

Costs you do not include. Do not include in the cost of upkeep expenses such as clothing, education, medical treatment, vacations, life insurance, or transportation. Also, do not include the rental value of a home you own or the value of your services or those of a member of your household.

Cost of Maintaining a Household

	Amount
	You	Total
	Paid	Cost
Property taxes	$	$
Mortgage interest expense
Rent
Utility charges
Upkeep and repairs
Property insurance
Food consumed on  the premises
Other household expenses
Totals	$	$
Minus total amount you paid		(        )
Amount others paid		$
If the total amount you paid is more than the amount others paid, you meet the requirement of paying more than half the cost of keeping up the home.

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