"Phil Marti" <prm20871[at]verizon.net> wrote:
- quote -

But congress keeps telling us that they didn't raise taxes :-(

--
-Ernie-

"There are only two kinds of computer users -- those who have
suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure, and those who will."
Have you done your backup today?

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A.G. Kalman wrote:
- quote -

Whoops, I missed the age in this one. The child is not a
qualifying child and therefore would have to be a qualifying
relative which he his not. Therefore, HOH is not available.

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"A.G. Kalman" <glendale202-mtmtax[at]yahoo.com> wrote:

- quote -

This is no longer true, as of 2005. The only exception is
when the custodial parent is allowing the noncustodial
parent the dependency exemption of a qualifying child. The
old "unmarried child regardless of income" qualifying person
for HofH is no more.

--
Phil Marti
Clarksburg, MD

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cloudeleven wrote:

- quote -

Subject/question has already been discussed to death on
Fairmark.com, but basically she does not qualify for HOH
status. You are neither a "qualifying child" (too old) nor a
"qualifying relative" (make over $3,200 last year), so can
not be her dependent.

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cloudeleven wrote:

- quote -

Subject/question has already been discussed to death on
Fairmark.com, but basically she does not qualify for HOH
status. You are neither a "qualifying child" (too old) nor a
"qualifying relative" (make over $3,200 last year), so can
not be her dependent.

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cloudeleven wrote:

- quote -

Because you are over the age of 23 and not disabled, you are
not a qualifying child for your mother. Therefore, in order
for her to be able to claim you as a dependent, you must
meet the rules of a qualifying relative. The two tests you
will have trouble with are support and gross income. Whether
your mother provided more than 50% of your support is
questionable, but it doesn't really matter because you fail
the gross income test. In order for your mother to claim you
in 2005, you must have earned less than $3,200. Since you
earned more than this, she cannot claim your dependency.
Since you are not her dependent, she also cannot use you for
Head of Household filing status. (This is different from
2004, in which you did not have to be her dependent for
purposes of HOH.) She must file single with no dependents,
and you also will file single.

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cloudeleven wrote:

- quote -

You are obviously not her dependent. A child does not have
to be a dependent to qualify the parent to file as HOH. As
you lived with her for more than half the year, she could
file as HOH as long as she paid more than half the cost of
keeping the home in which you both lived. You only told us
she paid for over half of your living expenses. I don't
know what that means. Keeping up a home includes the cost of
lodging (either rent or mortgage interest & property taxes),
utilities, repairs, property insurance, food consumed on the
premises and any other expense of the household. This is a
different definition than the one used to determine total
support of a dependent.

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"cloudeleven" <cloudeleven[at]email.com> wrote:

- quote -

To be a head of household one must maintain a household for
a "qualifying child" or other "deductible dependent". Tax
Code Sec. 2(b). You are too old to be a "qualifying child"
(over 24, not student), and your income is too high (over
$3,200) for you to be a deductible dependent. As a partial
offset to the increase in your mother's taxes, you can claim
a $3,200 exemption for yourself on your own return, which
you could not do if she claimed you as a dependent.

Bob Daniels (Usual disclaimers... free advice is worth the
price, can't rely for penalty protection, etc.)

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- quote -

<snip
- quote -

She cannot claim you as a dependent because of the gross
income test (you made over $3,200).

She cannot claim Head of Household because you are not a
dependent. (Yes, that was one of the rules that changed this
year.)

--
Don EA in Upstate NY

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"cloudeleven" <cloudeleven[at]email.com> wrote:

- quote -

No comment.

- quote -

Actually, for 2004 she could have filed as HofH if your
income had been $25,000 (and all other facts the same). All
it took was for your child to be unmarried--didn't have to
qualify as a dependent.

For 2005, since you don't qualify as her dependent, she
cannot file as HofH. She has to file Single with
(presumably) only her own personal exemption.

- quote -

She needs to amend her W-4 immediately to reflect her
current status or she'll have another big bill a year from
now.

- quote -

No and no. She does have a source of the cash to pay the
unexpected tax bill, though, so her child continues to be a
blessing to her.

Since you're so close, I hope you'll be able to sit her down
and make her reevaluate her budget without the tax break she
thought she was getting.

--
Phil Marti
Clarksburg, MD

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I'm 25 years old, and I lived with my mom for all of 2005. I
made around $24,000 in 2005. I was not a student at any time
last year. I'm not disabled. I am the only person she
supported last year, and I am the only other person in her
household. She paid over half of my living expenses last
year. My mom is basically doing me a huge favor by letting
me live with her. I can save for a car, house, etc. instead
of having to spend everything on supporting myself right now
since I don't make much. Plus, we are close and enjoy each
other's company.

I am aware that there have been some changes in the filing
status rules since last year, but I wasn't sure if she could
still claim herself as head of household this year. Last
year she was able to claim head of household for herself and
claim me as a dependent because I only made $2500 in 2004.

If she can't claim herself as head of household this year
and must claim herself as single instead because of these
rule changes, she will owe a huge tax bill this year. Last
year she got a huge refund because she could claim head of
household and claim me as a dependent.

Can she claim head of household for herself on her 2005
taxes? Also, can she claim me as a dependent?

I have read the rules and have come up with my own answer,
but I want to see if you agree with me.

Thanks for your help!

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