I was deployed to Iraq at the end of July. If I understand correctly, being seperated six months at the end of the year allows me to file Head of Household on my tax return. My wife had no interest and we have a child together. My main question is, under these circumstances, would filing Head of Household benefit me in the long run? (ie, keeping the coming rebates in mind) On a secondary note, July through December is six months, but I was not gone the entire month of July. Does this still qualify as six months?
2008-02-13T11:24:35Z
Interesting feedback. Is this a new rule? After one of my previous deployments (March 2005 - March 2006) a tax professional advised me to file Head of Household for that year.
Judy2008-02-13T13:36:09Z
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The six month rule is for people who split up, not for people away temporarily which is what a deployment is. And leaving at the END of July wouldn't qualify as the last six months of the year anyway, 6/30 would be the cutoff.
Joint tax rates are better than head of household anyway. So if some preparer had you file before as head of household she didn't do you any favor - you almost surely lost money by doing that. I hope she isn't still preparing your tax - she isn't very competent at it.
Not sure what you mean by your wife had no interest. If you mean no income, then you would definitely end up losing money, both on your tax return and on the upcoming rebate, if you filed as head of household which would be illegal anyway. You'd only get a rebate for you, not for each of you. And on your tax return, you wouldn't get her exemption, and would get a standard deduction of $7850 as head of household - you get $10,700 on a joint return.
Sorry, but I don't think being away military service qualifies you for "Head of Household". Here's the exact wording from the tax instructions:
Temporary absences. You and your qualifying person are considered to live together even if one or both of you are temporarily absent from your home due to special circumstances such as illness, education, business, vacation, or military service. It must be reasonable to assume that the absent person will return to the home after the temporary absence. You must continue to keep up the home during the absence.
Even if you could use deployment as a reason, you're also right about the six months requirement. If you were at home during part of July, you weren't away from home during the last six months of the tax year.
Head of household is meant to apply to someone who is permanently in charge of the household alone -- not someone who is away but will be back.
It shouldn't make any difference to your rebate, though -- those are based on your income, not your filing status.
If your previous preparer recommended HOH then you need to amend any open year (2004-2006) to the correct MFJ status.
If you filed HOH with your children (think about it, you were claiming the child lived with you and you were the one that was deployed, you know your child didn't go with you to Iraq!) and claimed EIC, you did so fraudulently. The only return you could file without your wife, MFS, doesn't get EIC or education credits.