Filing for 2024: Should I Choose Single or Head of Household Status with Claiming Kids?

Thanks for explaining that! So even though my college kids spend summers with their mom, they could still count as "living with me" because college is considered a temporary absence? Does that mean the physical time during summers doesn't count against the "more than half the year" requirement?

Exactly. College attendance is considered a temporary absence, so those months don't count against you. What matters is whether your home is considered their main home when they're not at school. If they consider your home their main residence despite staying with mom during summers, they can qualify you for HOH. The "more than half the year" requirement looks at where their main home is, not just counting physical days. So if your college student's main home is with you (they're just temporarily at college and then temporarily at mom's during summer), they could qualify you for HOH status. The key is establishing where their main home is when not at school.

How does it work with college students specifically? My daughter is in her sophomore year and I'm not sure if her living in a dorm most of the year affects my ability to claim HOH.

Sounds convenient but how accurate is it? I've had tax pros give me conflicting advice about HOH status with college kids before, so I'm skeptical any automated tool could get it right.

For college students, the tool specifically looks at whether your home is their main residence when not in school. It examines factors like where they return during breaks, whose address is on their official documents, and who provides their support. It's designed to handle exactly these edge cases with the temporary absence rules. Regarding accuracy, I was skeptical too. What convinced me was that they use actual IRS guidelines and court cases to analyze your situation, not just generic advice. They provided specific citations from tax code that applied to my situation. After getting their analysis, I had my accountant review it and he confirmed they were right.

How does this actually work? I've tried calling the IRS before and literally gave up after being on hold for 2 hours. Seems too good to be true that any service could get you through that quickly.

Yeah right. The IRS never picks up their phones. I'll believe it when I see it. Even if you get through, they'll probably just give you the same generic info you can find online.

It works by using an automated system that navigates the IRS phone tree and waits on hold for you. Once an actual IRS agent picks up, you get a call connecting you directly to them. It's basically like having someone else wait on hold for you. I was skeptical too, but when I used it during tax season last year, I got a call back in about 20 minutes connecting me to an actual IRS agent who had already navigated to the right department. The best part was that I could ask specific questions about my complex situation and get definitive answers instead of guessing or relying on conflicting online advice.

That's good to know about the household expenses! For my situation, I do pay the mortgage, utilities, and other household costs for my home. If I can establish that one of my college kids considers my home their main residence when not at school, would I meet that requirement even if they physically spend more time at college and with their mom during breaks?

Yes, you would likely meet the requirement. The IRS looks at whether you pay more than half the cost of maintaining the home where your qualifying person lives. Since college dorms and temporary stays during breaks are considered temporary absences, what matters is that you maintain their primary home. As long as your college student considers your home their main residence when not at school, and you pay more than half the costs of maintaining that home, you should meet the requirement. I'd recommend keeping documentation to substantiate this - things like their permanent address on school records, driver's license, voter registration, and where they receive mail.

I had the same issue with TurboTax. I found that if you go back to the "Personal Info" section and manually select "Head of Household" instead of letting it calculate automatically, then proceed through the qualifying person questions again, it will stick. Sometimes the software doesn't correctly handle these college student temporary absence situations.