What is "head of household"

n. The person responsible for governing a group that lives together, such as a family.

n. the head of a household or family or tribe

Head of Household is a filing status for individual United States taxpayers.

To use the Head of Household filing status, a taxpayer must:

1. Be unmarried or considered unmarried at the end of the year
2. Have paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the tax year (either one's own home or the home of a qualifying parent)
3. In most cases, have a qualifying person who lived with the head in the home for more than half of the tax year, unless the qualifying person is a dependent parent (See Special rule for parents.)