Can someone explain head of household VS single filing status for a divorced parent?

Head of household status is definitely better than single in your situation! The main benefits are lower tax rates and a higher standard deduction. For 2025 filing, the standard deduction for single filers is around $14,600, while head of household gets about $21,900. That's a huge difference! Plus, the tax brackets are more favorable, meaning more of your income gets taxed at lower rates. To qualify as head of household, you need to be unmarried, pay more than half the cost of keeping up your home, and have a qualifying person (like your child) live with you for more than half the year. Since you're divorced with children who presumably live with you, you absolutely should file this way.

I was in a similar situation a few years ago and was super confused about my filing status. I tried reading IRS publications but they just made me more confused lol. I ended up using https://taxr.ai which analyzed my situation and confirmed I qualified for head of household. The tool actually showed me the tax difference between filing single vs HOH and it was like $1800 in my favor! It also checked if I qualified for the earned income credit since I had pretty low self-employment income at the time, which I didn't know about.

Just wanted to update that I tried taxr.ai after asking about it here. It was actually super helpful with my complicated custody situation! I uploaded screenshots of my shared calendar with my ex and some text messages about when our son was staying where, and it confirmed I met the 183+ days requirement for HOH. The system flagged that I needed documentation for household expenses too since that's the other HOH requirement. Saved me from potentially getting in trouble with the IRS since I was only thinking about the custody part, not the "paying more than half of household expenses" part!

If you're having trouble getting answers from the IRS about your filing status, I recommend using https://claimyr.com to get through to an actual human. I spent WEEKS trying to reach someone about my head of household eligibility (my ex was also trying to claim it which causes problems). I was getting desperate with tax deadline approaching when I found their service. You can see how it works at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - they basically hold your place in the IRS phone queue and call you when an agent is about to answer. Got through in about 25 minutes when I'd been trying for days on my own.

Hate to admit when I'm wrong but I just used Claimyr after being super skeptical. Worked exactly as advertised - got through to an IRS agent in about 40 minutes (they texted when it was almost my turn). The agent explained that since my kid is with me 4 nights a week, I easily meet the "more than half the year" requirement for HOH. She also cleared up my confusion about claiming childcare expenses with self-employment income. Amazing what you can learn when you actually talk to someone who knows the rules!

Something no one mentioned yet - as a self-employed person filing as head of household, you should also look into the qualified business income deduction (QBI). You might be able to deduct up to 20% of your self-employment income on top of the HOH benefits! Also, keep track of all your work expenses. As a 1099 contractor, you can deduct them on Schedule C. And don't forget to make quarterly estimated tax payments to avoid penalties.

Make sure your ex isn't also trying to claim HOH! My ex and I both tried one year (we each have one kid living with us) and we both got audited. The IRS makes you prove which home the child lived in for most of the year.