What about the tiebreaker rules though? I thought those only applied to which parent can claim the child as a dependent, not for determining Head of Household status?

You're right that the tiebreaker rules primarily address who can claim a child as a dependent. However, for HOH purposes, those same determinations become relevant because you need a "qualifying person" to claim HOH status. When a divorce decree specifically assigns which child each parent can claim, it establishes who each child is a qualifying person for. The IRS generally respects these legal agreements as the controlling factor, even with exactly 50/50 physical custody. Without such an agreement, you'd fall back to the regular tiebreaker rules, which would eventually come down to the higher AGI parent if everything else is equal.

This is kinda misleading. If there's a court order specifying which parent claims which child, the IRS nearly always accepts that for HOH purposes even with 50/50 custody. I've been through an audit on exactly this issue and had zero problems once I showed my divorce decree.

That's exactly what I'm afraid of! Did you try to get them to fix the mistakes or file an amended return? I'm wondering if they stand behind their work when they mess up.

I did contact them about filing an amended return, but they wanted to charge me an additional fee for it even though the mistake was theirs. Their "accuracy guarantee" only covered penalties and interest if the IRS found an error, not money I overpaid due to their mistakes. That's when I switched preparers entirely. If you do go with Jackson Hewitt, get everything in writing about what their guarantee actually covers. Also ask to see a draft of your return before they file it and review the Schedule C thoroughly. Look especially at whether they've included all possible deductions like home office, business percentage of internet/phone, mileage, etc.

Do they offer any kind of audit protection? TurboTax charges extra for that and I'm trying to figure out if it's worth it.

Have you tried the IRS Direct File system? I heard they're testing it in some states this year but not sure if it's any good.

I have tried the IRS Direct File beta in my state (was one of the test states). It's very basic right now and only works for the simplest tax situations - W-2 income, standard deduction, and a few tax credits. No itemizing, no 1099 income, no investment income. The interface is clean but feels unfinished compared to commercial options. The advantage is it's truly free and goes directly to the IRS. If your taxes are super simple, it's worth considering, but most people will need more features than it currently offers. They're supposed to expand it for next tax season though.

This! I used TaxSlayer through the IRS Free File program and filed federal + state completely free. My friend went directly to TaxSlayer's website and ended up paying $60 for the exact same service.

We used the same provider all year - it's a daycare center at a local community college. They provided me with their Tax ID number which I entered exactly as they gave it to me. The educational vs. care distinction is interesting - could that be why the software is reducing my eligible expenses? The program is called "Early Childhood Learning Center" but it's definitely daycare while I'm at work, not a school. Do I need to clarify this somehow in my filing?

That's definitely what's happening then. When a provider has "Learning Center" in the name, tax software often flags it for partial educational expense allocation, even though it's functioning as childcare while you work. You'll need to override this in the software by specifically indicating that the primary purpose is care, not education. In TurboTax, there should be a question about the "nature of the services provided" where you can specify it's for care while you work. Make sure that's correctly marked. If the software doesn't allow you to override this, you might need to enter the provider twice - once for the "care" portion and once for what they're misclassifying as "educational," though this isn't technically correct and could create other issues.

Overnight camps definitely do NOT qualify for the Child and Dependent Care Credit. The IRS is very clear about this in Publication 503. Only day camps can qualify. The reasoning is that overnight camps are considered primarily for entertainment rather than for care that enables you to work. Day camps (even specialty ones like sports or computer camps) CAN qualify if they allow you to work or look for work, but any overnight program is specifically excluded by IRS rules.

Thanks for clarifying that! I had a feeling overnight camps wouldn't qualify, but my neighbor insisted they included their kids' sleepaway camp on their taxes. I'll stick with just claiming the day camps my kids attended. Do you know if there's any way to deduct overnight camps under a different tax benefit? Or are those expenses just completely non-deductible?

Do you know if the education credits work if I'm paying for my kid through a 529 plan? I've heard conflicting things about whether you can double-dip on the tax advantages.

That's a great question about 529 plans and education credits. You can't "double-dip" on the same expenses, meaning you can't claim a tax credit for education expenses paid with tax-free 529 withdrawals. However, if your total education expenses exceed what you paid from the 529, you can claim credits on those additional out-of-pocket expenses. For example, if your student had $25,000 in qualified education expenses and you used $20,000 from a 529 plan, you could potentially claim eligible education credits on the remaining $5,000 you paid from other sources.

I've been using TaxSlayer for the past few years and really like it. It's like $50 total for federal and state. Used to use TurboTax but they got too expensive and kept trying to upsell me on everything.