Legal Question in Tax Law in Texas

Re: Claiming Dependants

An individual can file as head of household if all of the following requirements are met: (1) unmarried or considered unmarried on the last day of the year; (2) individual paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year; and (3) a qualifying person lived with the individual filer in the home for more than half the year.

Under the Internal Revenue Code, a child, grandchild, etc. is a qualifying person if he/she is single and you can claim an exemption for him/her.

In order to claim a dependency exemption for a person, all of the following requirements must be met: (1) the person either lived with the individual filer for the entire year as member of household or be related to the filer; (2) person must be a US citizen, resident alien, etc.; (3) if person does not file a joint return; (4) person's gross income doesn't exceed $3050 (this test does not apply if the person is under 19 at the end of the year or is a full-time student under the age of 24); and (5) individual filer provided more than half of that person's told support during the year.

By all means you should speak with a representative of the IRS or an attorney regarding this as well as other tax questions.