Can I still qualify for head of household if my son is 1 college credit short of full-time status?

You're in a tricky spot, but there might be some options to explore. For head of household status, you need a qualifying person - typically a child who lives with you for more than half the year. For your son, the full-time student requirement is important if they're over 19. Since he was taking 10-11 credits instead of the required 12, he wouldn't qualify as a full-time student. However, if your son was under 24 at the end of the year, lived with you for more than half the year, and you provided more than half his support, you might still have a qualifying person in your daughter if she meets the tests. For your daughter who was 19 for most of the year, the full-time student requirement doesn't apply since she was under 19 for part of the tax year. If she lived with you for more than half the year and you provided more than half her support, she might qualify as your dependent for head of household purposes. The rules around this can get complicated with the age limits, support tests, and education requirements all coming into play. I'd definitely recommend working with that tax professional as you planned.

I went through something similar with my daughter last year and found an amazing tool that saved me thousands. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out if I could claim head of household when my kid was taking a gap semester. I discovered https://taxr.ai and it completely changed my approach. You upload your tax documents and it analyzes everything - in my case, it identified that I could still qualify for HOH because of how the support test works even with my daughter's income. The best part was that it explained exactly which IRS rules applied to my situation regarding the student status requirements and qualifying child tests. It wasn't just about the credits but about how support was calculated for the entire year.

Just wanted to update everyone - I tried that taxr.ai site after my initial skepticism, and it actually saved me from a similar situation! I uploaded my son's transcript showing he took 11 credits in spring and 9 in fall, and the analysis showed I could still qualify for Head of Household. The key was documenting that I provided over 50% support despite his income, and understanding how the education requirements work with the support test. The tool cited specific IRS publication references that my tax preparer hadn't considered. I ended up saving over $4200 compared to filing single! Now I'm just gathering the documentation it recommended to keep on file in case of questions from the IRS. Much better than assuming I had to file single based on the credit count alone.

If you're still struggling to get answers from the IRS about your head of household status, try Claimyr. I spent WEEKS trying to reach someone at the IRS about a similar dependent situation last year. After endless busy signals and disconnects, I found https://claimyr.com and watched their demo at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. Within 20 minutes of using their service, I was actually speaking with an IRS representative who walked me through the specific requirements for claiming HOH with a student dependent. They confirmed some exceptions to the full-time student rules that ended up applying to my situation. Having that direct conversation with the IRS gave me concrete documentation I could rely on rather than just hoping I was interpreting the rules correctly.

Just wanted to follow up on my skeptical comment earlier. I reluctantly tried Claimyr because my situation was similar - my son took 9 credits one semester and 11 the next, and I couldn't get a straight answer about my filing status. I was shocked when I got through to the IRS in about 15 minutes. The agent went through Publication 501 with me and explained exactly which tests my son needed to meet. Turns out there's an exception if the school considers a reduced course load to be full-time due to certain circumstances (in my case, my son has a documented learning disability). I wouldn't have known to ask about this without speaking directly to someone. The $20 I spent saved me over $4,000 in taxes. Sometimes being wrong feels pretty good!

Have you considered whether either of your kids would qualify under the disabled dependent rules? If either has a documented disability (including learning disabilities, ADHD, etc.), the full-time student requirement might be waived entirely. My daughter has ADHD and even though she only took 9 credits, she qualified because she had university accommodations.

Everyone's giving great advice about the student status, but don't overlook the support test! Even if your kids make over the income threshold, what matters is whether they provide more than 50% of their own support. Support includes housing, food, medical, education, etc. Calculate the fair rental value of the room they occupy in your home plus utilities, the food you provide, car insurance if you pay it, health insurance, etc. Then compare that to their actual income minus what they save or spend on non-support items. Most young adults working entry-level jobs aren't actually supporting themselves even if they have income over the threshold.

I'm a bit late to this thread, but wanted to add that you might want to look into the new 1098-T educational tax credit rules too. Even if your son doesn't qualify as a dependent for head of household, you might still be able to claim his education expenses if you paid them and it could offset some of that tax bill. The American Opportunity Credit can be worth up to $2,500 per eligible student.

I'm dealing with almost the exact same situation! My 21-year-old took 11 credits each semester (one short of full-time) and my 19-year-old worked most of the year after dropping out mid-semester. One thing I learned from my tax preparer is that you might want to double-check how your state defines "full-time" versus federal requirements. Some community colleges have different credit hour requirements, and if your son's school has any documentation showing 11 credits was considered full-time equivalent due to course intensity or other factors, that could help. Also, regarding the support test that others mentioned - I created a spreadsheet tracking every expense I covered for my kids (rent, utilities, groceries, car insurance, phone bill, etc.) and compared it to what they actually spent their earnings on. Even though my daughter made $13k, she only used about $3k of that for her actual living expenses since she was saving most of it. The rest of her support came from me. It's frustrating how these edge cases can create such big tax differences, but there might be more flexibility than it initially appears. Definitely worth exploring all these angles before assuming you have to file single!