Alan is divorced and the son he supports lives with him.
He files as HOH. Beth is divorced and lives and supports
her daughter (dad is a deadbeat). She files as HOH.
Alan and Beth meet and then jointly rent a two-bedroom
apartment. They split all the expenses right down the
middle with each paying 50%. After all, 50% of a two-
bedroom apartment is less than 100% of a one-bedroom
apartment. Can they still both file as HOH?
Alan is divorced and the son he supports lives with him.
He files as HOH. Beth is divorced and lives and supports
her daughter (dad is a deadbeat). She files as HOH.
Alan and Beth meet and then jointly rent a two-bedroom
apartment. They split all the expenses right down the
middle with each paying 50%. After all, 50% of a two-
bedroom apartment is less than 100% of a one-bedroom
apartment. Can they still both file as HOH?
This sounds like a homework question.
The answer is that neither of them can file as head of
household. One of the requirements for head of household
filing status is that you pay MORE than half the cost of
keeping up the home. If they truly split the expenses
exactly in half, then neither one pays MORE than half, so
neither one can file as head of household.
They should agree that one of them will pay a little more
than half and file as head of household. The other one still
has to file as single. Because of the "more than half"
requirement, there is no way that two people in the same
household can both file as head of household.
Alan is divorced and the son he supports lives with him. He files as HOH. Beth is divorced and lives and supports her daughter (dad is a deadbeat). She files as HOH. Alan and Beth meet and then jointly rent a two-bedroom apartment. They split all theexpenses right down the middle with each paying 50%. After all, 50% of a two-bedroom apartment is less than 100% of a one-bedroom apartment. Can they still both file as HOH?
Bob Sandler <bob_usenet@yahoo.com> wrote:
Alan is divorced and the son he supports lives with him.
He files as HOH. Beth is divorced and lives and supports
her daughter (dad is a deadbeat). She files as HOH.
Alan and Beth meet and then jointly rent a two-bedroom
apartment. They split all the expenses right down the
middle with each paying 50%. After all, 50% of a two-
bedroom apartment is less than 100% of a one-bedroom
apartment. Can they still both file as HOH?
They should agree that one of them will pay a little more
than half and file as head of household. The other one still
has to file as single. Because of the "more than half"
requirement, there is no way that two people in the same
household can both file as head of household.
They should be able to agree, with IRS Form 8832, that each can claim
one child as a dependent, so that both can claim to be heads of
household.
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8332.pdf
Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:
Bob Sandler <bob_usenet@yahoo.com> wrote:
Alan is divorced and the son he supports lives with him.
He files as HOH. Beth is divorced and lives and supports
her daughter (dad is a deadbeat). She files as HOH.
Alan and Beth meet and then jointly rent a two-bedroom
apartment. They split all the expenses right down the
middle with each paying 50%. After all, 50% of a two-
bedroom apartment is less than 100% of a one-bedroom
apartment. Can they still both file as HOH?
They should agree that one of them will pay a little more
than half and file as head of household. The other one still
has to file as single. Because of the "more than half"
requirement, there is no way that two people in the same
household can both file as head of household.
They should be able to agree, with IRS Form 8832, that each can
claim one child as a dependent, so that both can claim to be
heads of household.
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8332.pdf
For many years, my son's mother and I gave each other 8332s in
alternating years, so that we could alternate claiming him as a
dependent. The advice that I was given was that, since she had
sole physical custody (it was a joint legal custody situation),
she always got to claim Head of Household, no matter who claimed
him as a dependent.
This would seem to be borne out by the text on the 8332 reading:
[...] It doesn’t apply to other tax benefits, such as the
earned income credit, dependent care credit, or head of
household filing status. [...]
"Michael F. Stemper" <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:
Bob Sandler <bob_u...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Alan is divorced and the son he supports lives with him.
He files as HOH. Beth is divorced and lives and supports
her daughter (dad is a deadbeat). She files as HOH.
Alan and Beth meet and then jointly rent a two-bedroom
apartment. They split all the expenses right down the
middle with each paying 50%. After all, 50% of a two-
bedroom apartment is less than 100% of a one-bedroom
apartment. Can they still both file as HOH?
They should be able to agree, with IRS Form 8832, that each can
claim one child as a dependent, so that both can claim to be
heads of household.
On Friday, November 10, 2023 at 8:39:26 AM UTC-8, Stuart O.
Bronstein wrote:
"Michael F. Stemper" <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:
Bob Sandler <bob_u...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Alan is divorced and the son he supports lives with him.
He files as HOH. Beth is divorced and lives and supports
her daughter (dad is a deadbeat). She files as HOH.
Alan and Beth meet and then jointly rent a two-bedroom
apartment. They split all the expenses right down the
middle with each paying 50%. After all, 50% of a two-
bedroom apartment is less than 100% of a one-bedroom
apartment. Can they still both file as HOH?
They should be able to agree, with IRS Form 8832, that each
can claim one child as a dependent, so that both can claim to
be heads of household.
I'm still confused about why there is a need for Form 8832 and why
this isn't a case of two separate, unrelated households at the
same address.
My reading of the initial story is that one has
* Alan, divorced from X, with Son.
* Beth, divorced from Y, with Daughter
It doesn't appear that Alan is related to either Beth or her
daughter, and vice-versa.
If they each rented separate one-bedroom apartments, they would
clearly be two separate households. So why does deciding to share
a two-bedroom apartment for economic reasons change that?
Tom Russ <taruss@google.com> wrote:
On Friday, November 10, 2023 at 8:39:26 AM UTC-8, Stuart O.
Bronstein wrote:
"Michael F. Stemper" <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:
Bob Sandler <bob_u...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Alan is divorced and the son he supports lives with him.
He files as HOH. Beth is divorced and lives and supports
her daughter (dad is a deadbeat). She files as HOH.
Alan and Beth meet and then jointly rent a two-bedroom
apartment. They split all the expenses right down the
middle with each paying 50%. After all, 50% of a two-
bedroom apartment is less than 100% of a one-bedroom
apartment. Can they still both file as HOH?
They should be able to agree, with IRS Form 8832, that each
can claim one child as a dependent, so that both can claim to
be heads of household.
I'm still confused about why there is a need for Form 8832 and why
this isn't a case of two separate, unrelated households at the
same address.
My reading of the initial story is that one has
* Alan, divorced from X, with Son.
* Beth, divorced from Y, with Daughter
It doesn't appear that Alan is related to either Beth or her
daughter, and vice-versa.
If they each rented separate one-bedroom apartments, they would
clearly be two separate households. So why does deciding to share
a two-bedroom apartment for economic reasons change that?
It's not only about households. But dividing the costs right down
the middle means that neither paid more than half the support for
either child, which is a requirement.
"Stuart O. Bronstein" wrote
Tom Russ <taruss@google.com> wrote:
Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:
"Michael F. Stemper" <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:
Bob Sandler <bob_u...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Alan is divorced and the son he supports lives with him.
He files as HOH. Beth is divorced and lives and supports
her daughter (dad is a deadbeat). She files as HOH.
Alan and Beth meet and then jointly rent a two-bedroom
apartment. They split all the expenses right down the
middle with each paying 50%. After all, 50% of a two-
bedroom apartment is less than 100% of a one-bedroom
apartment. Can they still both file as HOH?
They should be able to agree, with IRS Form 8832, that each
can claim one child as a dependent, so that both can claim
to be heads of household.
I'm still confused about why there is a need for Form 8832 and
why this isn't a case of two separate, unrelated households at
the same address.
My reading of the initial story is that one has
* Alan, divorced from X, with Son.
* Beth, divorced from Y, with Daughter
It doesn't appear that Alan is related to either Beth or her
daughter, and vice-versa.
If they each rented separate one-bedroom apartments, they would
clearly be two separate households. So why does deciding to
share a two-bedroom apartment for economic reasons change that?
It's not only about households. But dividing the costs right down
the middle means that neither paid more than half the support for
either child, which is a requirement.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't the solution to the
problem this? Instead of each person paying 50% of all expenses,
Alan should pay 100% of the expenses directly related to his child
(food, clothing, tuition, toys, etc.), Beth should pay 100%
percent of the expenses associated with her child (same kind of
items as Abel), and they should split evenly only the common
expenses like rent, electricity, water, etc. that would be too
hard to split up. In this way, you effectively have two
households, with each parent and child constituting their own
household.
Think of it this way. If instead of a single apartment, suppose
we had a large dormitory type room with 6 or 8 parent-child
couples all sharing a common space and each paying for their own
expense but pooling the cost of rent. Do we really think the IRS
would consider this to be one giant household? Seems to me a
household is a family unit where a parent is living with his or
her dependent child or children. Multiple such couples, unrelated
to one another, mean multiple households.
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