Not sure of the answer to this situation - legally married but did not live with spouse for the last nine months of the year. Both maintain their our own separate households 100% and have two dependent children. One dependent child lived with one parent the last nine months of the year and claimed as a dependent. The other child lived with the other parent the last nine months of the year and claimed as a dependent by my that parent. Parents will file separate returns but can both claim Head of Household status under the abandoned spouse rules even though still married? It seems like it is a way to "work around" the requirement of being unmarried to file HH.

You can claim the hoh filing status on your tax return if you pass the support test, the residency test for a qualifying person except your cousine, and are unmarried at the end of the year;you must be unmarried on the last day of the year in order to file as hoh. Unmarried means a person is not married because he/she is single, divorced, or legally separated under a separate maintenance decree. As general rule, state law determines whether a person is married or not married. A married person may be considered as if he or she were unmarried for the purpose of qualifying for hoh status. To be considered unmarried, the person needs to be legally married and have lived in a separate residence from his or her spouse for at least the last 6 months of the year July 1 through Decembe31. Furthermore, the taxpayer would need to file a tax return separate from his/ her spouse, and needs toprovides more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year; a qualifying person, a depednenst, I mean needs to live in the taxpayer's home for more than half the year.

Yes--those are the HH tests. But there are Abandoned Spouse Rules that allows a legally married individual to use the HH filing status. The rules per IRC Section 7703(b) are:

a. The abandoned individual pays more than half the cost of maintaining his/her household for the taxable year.
b. The individual files a separate tax return.
c. The individual’s household is the principal home of a dependent child for more than six months of the tax year and the individual is entitled to claim the dependency exemption (even if no claim is made).
d. The individual lives in a separate residence from his/her spouse for the last six months of the tax year.

My question is that if both spouses meet the Abandoned Spouse rules, then are both entitled to use HH filing status? If so, it appears to be a way to intentionally get around the normal HH requirement of being unmarried in order to claim HH status.

#1;Correct.

#2;Only one spouse who has been abandoned the relationship qualifies as AS and files as HOH;. If you lived with your child but your spouse has been gone from the home for at least the past six months, you qualify for the abandoned spouse rule. Usually, being married disqualifies a person from filing as a HOH. The abandoned spouse rule says that although you were technically married at the end of the year, you may file your taxes as a HOH.please read below.

#3;Then it can be tax fraud. Getting caught filing and claiming HOH fraudulently can and will you get HOH status. While many simply do not understand the HOH rules, many do know they shouldn't claim HOH but file under that status anyways. Aslongas/needelss to say,you claim HOH when you understand yu are not entitled to, it is tax fraud pure and simple. The IRS in a typical year audits less than 1% of returns to IRS so the likelihood is low that you will get caught if you file HOH when you should not. However, if both parents/spouses file HOH, the IRS will certainly contact both filers to find out who has the right to claim the exemption. One of the filers will need to amend their return.hi doesn’t man both of them CAN’T FILE their separate returns as HOH . I mean aslongas both you and your spouse live apart during the tax year, maintain separate households and each of you can claim a child or qualifying relative as a dependent, you can both file separate returns as HOH for your 1040s.