If I split things equally with my partner (tenants-in-common for our house) can only one of us say we "paid more than half the cost to keep up our home"?

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
March 31, 2022
3 replies
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We are not married, and not in a registered domestic partnership. We do not file jointly.

TurboTax Deluxe Online

Vanessa A

Do you have dependents? If not, it doesn't matter as you wouldn't be able to claim head of household. This only comes into play if you have dependents and you want to claim head of household.

If you do have a dependent, then only one of you could claim head of household.

If you split things equally then neither of you actually pay more than half of the cost to maintain a house as you both are paying the same.

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xmasbaby0

Employee

Well....it is mathematically impossible for each of you to pay over half. And ....what are you trying to do? Are you both trying to say you are Head of Household? Do you each have a qualifying dependent? Why are you asking about this?

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Vkolbasook

I am in a situation where we are both trying to claim head of household and we do both have a qualifying dependent. Is that possible? We own our home. We live separate lives financially. We are not married or in a domestic partnership.

Opus 17

Employee

@Vkolbasook wrote:

I am in a situation where we are both trying to claim head of household and we do both have a qualifying dependent. Is that possible? We own our home. We live separate lives financially. We are not married or in a domestic partnership.

That's complicated. It is possible for two adults living under one roof to have separate "households" but it depends on the facts. Even though you have not mingled your finances, and even though you are not in a registered domestic partnership, do you in fact live as a family? Are you romantically involved with the other person? Do you eat together? Are both children biologically both of yours? Do your kids play together, have the same friends, go to the same birthday parties? Do you share expenses for groceries and other household expenses, or does one person pay fair market rent to the other?

Those are the facts the IRS will be looking at if you both claim HOH and they audit you.

Carl11_2

Employee

I'm not sure why you're asking this, as I don't know for a fact why this matters. But my guess is that only one of you has a qualifying dependent and are therefore desiring to file as head of household. If that's the situation, then to qualify for the HOH status you must have paid more than half the cost of maintaining a household.