Filing status for 2 single people with one adopted child

[maughact]

I have 2 clients that  live together and have one adopted child.  The father is claiming the child as a dependent but does not pay more than half the cost of the home so he's Single with a dependent and getting the adoption credit.

Can the mother file head of household without claiming the dependent?  I know divorced parents can do so but in this situation both parents live together.  One rule is the child can't be a qualifying child of another so I'm thinking no but wanted to see if anyone else came across this before?

[TaxGuyBill · Accepted solution]

No, Head of Household is not allowed.  Both must file as Single, unless they change their mind and let the mother claim the child.

If they are both your clients, you may want to run it both ways (with the mother claiming the child and Head of Household) to see what has the better result.

[maughact]

That's exactly what I did.  I was pretty sure I was correct but wanted to get another opinion.

Thanks!