Multiple Support Agreement Form 2120 Questions - Can I claim HOH without claiming a dependent?

Thanks for your response. Yes, Mom would qualify as my dependent otherwise - she made less than $5,000 last year from her pension, lived with me for 8 months, and I provided a significant portion of her support. So are you saying I could potentially still use HOH status even though my brother is claiming her with Form 2120?

If your mother would qualify as your dependent except for the fact that you're allowing your brother to claim her via Form 2120, then yes, you can still claim Head of Household filing status. The IRS allows this specific exception. The key requirements you've already met are: 1) She lived with you for more than half the year, 2) You paid more than half the cost of keeping up the home, and 3) She would qualify as your dependent except for the multiple support agreement. Since you've confirmed all these points, you should be eligible to claim HOH status even while your brother claims her as a dependent using Form 2120.

Did they actually review your specific tax forms or just give general advice? I've been burned by "expert" services before that just regurgitate IRS publications.

How long did it take to get an answer? I'm trying to finish my taxes this weekend and have a similar form 2120 situation with my sister.

They actually reviewed my specific tax documents and circumstances. Unlike those generic sites that just quote IRS manuals, the taxr.ai experts provided personalized guidance based on my exact situation with Form 2120 and who could claim what dependents in our shared support arrangement. The turnaround was really quick - I got my answer the same day. I submitted my documents in the morning and had clear guidance by early afternoon, so you should definitely have time to complete your taxes this weekend if you reach out to them soon.

Wait, so this service actually gets you through to a real IRS person? How does that even work? The IRS phone system is notoriously terrible.

Sounds like a scam to me. Nobody can magically get through IRS phone lines. They probably just connect you to some "tax expert" who isn't even with the IRS.

It actually connects you to the real IRS phone system, but they use a technology that navigates the phone tree and waits on hold for you. When an actual IRS agent picks up, you get a call back to connect with them. It's not magic - just clever technology that does the waiting for you. They don't provide tax advice themselves - they literally just get you through to the front of the IRS phone queue. When I used it, I spoke directly with an IRS representative who answered my Form 2120 questions. No third-party "experts" involved.

That's a really good point I hadn't considered. We calculated our support percentages based on total expenses for Mom, including housing, medical, food, utilities, etc. I'm pretty confident in our numbers (40% me, 35% brother, 25% her pension), but I'll double-check to make sure we didn't miss anything that might push either of us over 50%. Would this affect my ability to claim HOH?

As long as neither of you provides more than 50% of support, you're good for the Form 2120 multiple support agreement. Regarding your HOH status, that's separate from the support test. For HOH, you need to have paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home where your mother lived for more than half the year. This "keeping up a home" test is different from the support test. It only includes expenses for the home itself (rent/mortgage, utilities, repairs, property taxes, food eaten in the home, etc.). If you paid more than half of these specific home expenses, and your mother lived with you for 8 months, you should qualify for HOH even while your brother claims her as a dependent with Form 2120.

That sounds like a limitation of the software, not the tax code. TurboTax Premium handled this situation correctly for me last year. Some of the basic versions of tax software don't handle these more complicated scenarios well.