Claiming Head Of Household

[CLEVY]

I was wondering if i was able to claim HOH if i lived in a trailer for 7 months with my 6 year old daughter. I can claim her as a dependant but the first 5 months of the year i rented a room from a friend.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I was wondering if i was able to claim HOH if i lived in a trailer for 7 months with my 6 year old daughter. I can claim her as a dependant but the first 5 months of the year i rented a room from a friend.

You had to pay over half the cost of "keeping up a home." Note that home in this case is not the same thing as a house. What it refers to is paying the costs of room and board for the family — so if you paid fair market rent on the room from the friend and paid for the food you and your daughter ate then you paid all the costs of keeping up the home for your family. The idea here is that if someone else is helping to cover at least half of your room and board then you didn't pay more than half the costs of keeping up a home. See IRS publication 501 starting on page 8 for more details on HOH filing status.