I am still legally married (mid-divorce), however, I moved out on July 1. So for 6 months exactly I lived in the house with my kids and wife. and for 6 months I lived in a separate home with noncustodial rights (so about 10 days a month I have the kids). My spouse will likely not even report enough income to get the benefit of the exemptions for the kids, nor would I imagine said income would be enough for her to claim she provided 50% of their expenses. However, she won't just agree to let me take them. There is no court order saying one way or the other. We will not be filing jointly because she is playing games with her income and I don't want to be a party to that if she is caught (she owns a small business and suddenly she is reporting huge losses after several years of profits just in time for the income discovery part of the divorce....). All that said, technically the kids lived me me for greater than 50% of the year, but technically they did with her too as a result of us living together for half the year. Technically they spent more nights with her than me, but I still exceed 50%. Am I able to file head of household? I think I meet the requirements, but the tax software basically is shutting me down from that option as soon as I check the box that the kids spend more nights with her than me. Don;t you just have to provide 50% or more of their expenses and have them live in your home for greater than 50% of the time?

You can claim head of household filing status if you're "considered unmarried" at the end of the year and you paid more than half the cost of maintaining your home for the year and you have one or more qualifying dependents who lived with you for at LEAST half the year.So aslongas there is a written declaration form 8332signed and approved by the custodial parent i.e. ex-spouse to support that alternating treatment If so, you can certainly claim the child as a dependent since you meet those tests.