HOH for parents who are divorced but live together

[kamckinley]

I think I found the answer to my question. Under the tiebreaker rules if the children live with both parents equally, the children are the qualifying child of the parent with the higher AGI. In this case, that is the mother. So if I understand the rules correctly she can qualify for EIC even though she is not HOH. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thank you!

[Gretel]

Yes, mother can claim EIC with single filing status.

[DonB]

Correct in my book--

[taxea]

Sorry but two adults in the same household, sharing expenses, do not qualify for HOH. Both file S and higher income takes the kids unless there are more issues to consider.

[Gary2]

I think I found the answer to my question. Under the tiebreaker rules if the children live with both parents equally, the children are the qualifying child of the parent with the higher AGI. In this case, that is the mother. So if I understand the rules correctly she can qualify for EIC even though she is not HOH. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thank you!

That's not precisely correct, though it doesn't affect your result.

This particular tiebreaker rule only applies if both parents claim the child. If one parent agrees to let the other claim the child, then the AGI doesn't matter. This can be found as example 9 under the tiebreaker rules in Pub. 501, page 17.

[Gary2]

Sorry but two adults in the same household, sharing expenses, do not qualify for HOH. Both file S and higher income takes the kids unless there are more issues to consider.

We've already addressed the notion of "sharing expenses equally", but you seem to be saying that it doesn't matter how they share, i.e., if one pays 2/3s of the household expenses and the other pays 1/3, then you're saying that the one paying 2/3 can't get HoH. On what do you base that?

[BP.]

higher income takes the kids

Another tiebreaker rule. TTB has a nice new chart this year on dependency. Page 3-15, Qualifying Child of More Than One Taxpayer. It says parents can chose.