Question

Johnny Perez is separated from his wife, Elizabeth. She moved out May 31 of this tax year. They have 3 young children. Johnny provided over half of the household support for the year. The children lived with Johnny all year and he claims a dependency exemption for all three of them on his tax return. Elizabeth & Johnny will not file a tax return together.

What filing status should you use for Johnny?

a)    Married filing separately

b)    Single

c)    Head of Household

d)    Married filing jointly

Answer 1

In the given case, Johnny is looking after his 3 young children, who can be called as dependents to Johnny. If he files the return with Head of Household status, it would be more beneficial to him in reducing his tax expenses. In this case, he is eligible to Head of Household because his children are with him for more than 6 months of the tax year, his wife is not staying with him for more than six months and all the expenses for the dependent children are incurred by Johnny.

Head of Household status has more advantages than filing with status of Married filing separately.

Therefore, it is best to you Head of Household status for Johnny.