Head of Household Filing status help! Worried about messing up my child's information

You're doing fine! For a child dependent who has no income, you would indeed put $0 for their income. The software is asking because some dependents (like older teenagers or college students) might have part-time jobs or investment income, but for an 8-year-old with no income, zero is the correct answer. For Head of Household status, the main requirements are that you're unmarried (or considered unmarried for tax purposes), you paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the year, and a qualifying person (like your daughter) lived with you for more than half the year. The dependent's income generally doesn't affect your Head of Household eligibility unless they're providing their own support. Just make sure you have your daughter's Social Security Number ready to enter as well. That's a must for claiming her as a dependent.

Wanted to share something that really helped me with this exact issue! Last year I was super confused about filing Head of Household with my two kids, and I spent HOURS trying to figure out if I was doing it right. I finally found this awesome tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that analyzed my tax situation. It basically reviewed all my documents and confirmed I was eligible for Head of Household status. What was cool is that it pointed out that I needed to document how much I was paying for household expenses since that's a key requirement (paying more than half the costs of keeping up your home). The tool actually created a checklist of what I needed to qualify and saved me from making a mistake that might have triggered an audit. Definitely worth checking out if you're nervous about getting your filing status right!

Ok I was super skeptical about that taxr.ai thing mentioned above but I gave it a shot with my Head of Household situation. I'm a single dad with custody of my son and was always worried I was missing something. The tool actually pointed out that I was missing documentation about household expenses - turns out I wasn't keeping good records of how much I spent maintaining our home (which is required for HoH status). It generated a whole checklist of what I needed to prove my eligibility and found a child care credit I didn't know I qualified for. Definitely helped me sleep better knowing I wasn't making mistakes that might trigger an audit. Sometimes it's worth getting a second opinion when dealing with the IRS!

Just want to mention something that saved me HUGE headaches. Last year I filed as Head of Household but the IRS questioned my status and sent me a letter. I tried calling them for WEEKS but couldn't get through. I was about to give up when I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) - they basically get you through to an actual IRS agent. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c Instead of waiting on hold for hours or getting disconnected, I actually got to speak with someone at the IRS within like 20 minutes. The agent walked me through exactly what documentation I needed to prove my Head of Household status was legit. Saved me so much stress and potentially a big tax bill if my filing status had been rejected!

So I have to eat my words about Claimyr from my comment above. After waiting on hold with the IRS for literally 3 hours and getting disconnected TWICE, I was desperate enough to try it. I hate to admit it but it actually worked exactly as advertised. Got a call back in about 30 minutes and was connected to an IRS agent who helped clear up my Head of Household questions. The agent confirmed that I was eligible and explained exactly what documentation I needed to keep in case I ever get audited. Turns out I was overthinking it - as long as I'm providing more than half the cost of keeping up the home where my child lives for more than half the year, I'm good. Wish I'd known about this service years ago when I had that issue with my stimulus payment!

Don't forget that to qualify for Head of Household, your child must be a "qualifying person" which generally means they need to be your child by birth, adoption, or they lived with you for more than half the year. And you need to provide more than half their support. But it sounds like with an 8 year old daughter you're all good! Just make sure you're not married filing jointly - that's an automatic disqualification for HoH status.

Make sure u keep receipts for household expenses in case u get audited! My sister got audited 2 yrs ago for her Head of Household claim and they wanted proof she paid more than half the home expenses. She had to scramble to find old utility bills, rent receipts, grocery receipts etc. Better safe than sorry!!