what is head of household hoh 
filing your tax return using the head of household hoh filing status provides a higher standard deduction and lower tax rates but there are numerous qualifying rules you must support and provide a home for a qualifying dependent and you must be considered unmarried and pay more than half the cost of supporting your home understanding head of household hoh head of household is a filing status available to taxpayers who meet certain qualifying criteria they must file individual tax returns be considered unmarried and have a qualifying dependent such as a child or parent the hoh must pay more than one half the cost of supporting the qualifying person and more than one half the cost of maintaining that person s primary home 1the irs provides a breakdown of what constitutes a qualifying person in table 4 of publication 501 1head of household vs singlethere are some significant tax advantages to filing as head of household rather than single hoh qualifying rulesthe taxpayer must be single divorced or regarded as unmarried to qualify for hoh status married taxpayers would be regarded as unmarried if they didn t live with their spouse at any time during the last six months of the tax year the status also requires that the hoh meet one of these two requirements married taxpayers are considered unmarried if they haven t lived with their spouse for the last six months of the tax year 4an hoh must pay more than one half of the cost of a qualifying person s support and housing costs housing costs include rent or mortgage utilities repairs insurance taxes and other costs of maintaining the home where the qualifying person lives for more than half the year the home must be the taxpayer s own home unless the qualifying person is the taxpayer s parent and the home is the property of that parent 5it s still possible to file as head of household if your qualifying person is a parent who lives at another address provided that they re dependent on you and you cover more than half the cost of keeping up their home 5the enactment of the tax cuts and jobs act of 2017 tcja resulted in the suspension of the personal exemption for dependents through 2025 hoh filers had to be able to claim an exemption for their qualifying person when this tax provision was in effect taxpayers could release their exemption to a noncustodial parent in a divorce proceeding or a legal separation agreement and remain eligible to file as an hoh however 67hoh tax examplean hoh filer receives a standard deduction of 21 900 in tax year 2024 reducing 70 000 in taxable income to 48 100 of that amount 16 550 will be taxed at 10 and 31 550 at 12 bringing the total tax bill to 1 655 3 786 5 441 a taxpayer filing as single or married filing separately qualifies for a standard deduction of 14 600 in 2024 reducing their taxable income from 70 000 to 55 400 of which 11 600 will be taxed at 10 35 550 at 12 and the remaining 8 250 at 22 this results in a total tax bill of 1 160 4 266 1 815 7 241 2filing as head of household saved this taxpayer 1 800 numerous tax provisions are indexed for inflation so they can increase incrementally each year these 2024 figures represent the increases from 2023 who qualifies as head of household you must be considered unmarried pay at least half your household expenses and have a qualified dependent living with you for more than half the year to qualify as head of household you can also qualify if your dependent is a parent who doesn t live with you but for whom you cover at least half of their housing costs 1