Filing status HOH vs MFS?

[AZ-Tax]

Is that possible for this TP to file HOH with 2 young kids vs Married Filing Separately and lived all 12 months with spouse?

[Uncle Sam]

Hoh/mfs

AZ- TheTaxBook answers most of your questions you post..
I suggest you READ it BEFORE posting on the board.

If 2 spouses lived with each other all year - neither one of them can file HOH.

[AZ-Tax]

I did read TTB

and I came to the same conclusion but as we know, tax laws change from time and just checking to see if I missed something due to a new client I have who brought in their in 2009 tax return for which one spouse filed HOH w/kids and the other spouse MFS yet they lived together all 12 months in 2009.

Uncle Sam, while I appreciate your answers as I do with everyones answers on this board, if you have any concerns with my questions, feel free to avoid them.

[Koss]

HOH and MFS

Generally, I agree that a person who is married, and lived with their spouse at any time during the last six months of the year, cannot use the HOH filing status. So the prior year return was probably done incorrectly.

There is a bizarre, poorly understood exception to this rule that applies when the spouse is a nonresident alien. In other words, if the taxpayer is a US citizen or resident alien, and her spouse is a nonresident alien, and there are children in the household, she may be able to use HOH status even if she was living with her spouse for the entire year. However, this exception does not make her eligible for the Earned Income Credit. It's alice-in-wonderland stuff.

That's the only way I know that it could have been done.

BMK

[Dusty2004]

I agree no HOH

If the lived together the last 6 months only options MFJ or MFS.

Dusty