Head of household: who qualifies, and what it is worth

Head of household is the filing status for an unmarried person who keeps up a home for someone else. It is worth more than filing single, and it is easy to get wrong by meeting two of the three tests and assuming that is enough. This page covers the three tests, the "considered unmarried" rule for people who are still legally married, who counts as a qualifying person, and what the status is worth in 2026.

What head of household gets you

Two things, both visible on the return.

A larger standard deduction. For 2026 it is $24,150, compared with $16,100 for single. ³

Wider brackets at the bottom. The rate schedule for heads of household lets more income sit in the lower brackets:

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Status also feeds other parts of the return, such as credit phase-outs, so the difference shows up in more than one line. Head of household also lets you take the standard deduction even if your spouse itemizes on a separate return. ²

The three tests

You can file as head of household only if all three are true. ²

1. You are unmarried, or considered unmarried, on the last day of the year.
2. You paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year.
3. A qualifying person lived with you in that home for more than half the year. A dependent parent is the exception: your parent doesn't have to live with you.

The statute says the same thing in its own words: the home must be the principal place of abode of the qualifying person for "more than one-half" of the year, and you must furnish "over half of the cost of maintaining the household." ¹ A surviving spouse can't use it, and neither can anyone who was a nonresident alien at any time during the year. ¹

Test 1: unmarried, or considered unmarried

Marital status is measured on December 31. If you're divorced or legally separated under a decree by then, you're unmarried for the whole year. ¹ If your spouse was a nonresident alien at any time in the year, you're treated as not married for this purpose. ¹ If your spouse died during the year, you're treated as married for that year. ¹

Still married but living apart? You can be "considered unmarried" if you meet every one of these. ²

• You file a separate return.
• You paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the year.
• Your spouse didn't live in your home during the last six months of the year. ²
• Your home was the main home of your child, stepchild or foster child for more than half the year.
• You can claim that child as a dependent, or you could except that you let the other parent claim the child under the rules for divorced or separated parents.

That last point matters for separated parents. A custodial parent who releases the dependency claim to the other parent can generally still file as head of household. The parent who receives the release can't use that child to qualify. ²

Test 2: paying more than half the cost of the home

Add up the costs of keeping up the home for the year, then compare what you paid with the total.

What counts: rent, mortgage interest, real estate taxes, home insurance, repairs, utilities, and food eaten in the home. ²

What doesn't: clothing, education, medical treatment, vacations, life insurance, transportation, and the value of your own work or a household member's. ²

Money paid from funds in the qualifying person's own name, such as their Social Security, counts as paid by them, not by you. ²

Test 3: a qualifying person

This is where most of the wrinkles live. From the IRS's table: ²

• Your qualifying child who is single qualifies you, if the child lived with you more than half the year.
• A married child qualifies you only if you can claim the child as a dependent.
• Your parent qualifies you if you can claim the parent as a dependent and you paid more than half the cost of keeping up the parent's main home for the year.
• Another relative qualifies you only if the relative lived with you more than half the year, is related to you in one of the ways the rules list, and you can claim them as a dependent.
• Someone unrelated who is your dependent only because they lived with you all year as a member of your household does not qualify you. Neither does someone you can claim only through a multiple support agreement. ¹
• One person, one head of household. Only one taxpayer can use a given qualifying person for this status.

Temporary absences, such as school, illness or military service, count as time living with you, as long as it's reasonable to expect the person to come back. A child born or who died during the year qualifies if the child lived with you for more than half the part of the year the child was alive. ²