Maintaining a Household
In order to be considered to be "maintaining a household," you must provide more than one-half the cost of keeping up a home. Costs of maintaining a household include rent or mortgage interest, real estate taxes, insurance on the home, repairs, utilities, and food eaten in the home. They do not include the costs of clothing, education, medical treatment, vacations, transportation, life insurance, or the value of services.
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The test described above for "maintaining a household" is less demanding than the test for supporting a dependent. As a result, you may be entitled to file as an HOH even though you can't claim any dependency exemptions.
One common situation where this rule comes into play is where a couple is divorced, and the lower-paid spouse retains custody of the children. The couple may agree to give the dependency exemptions to the noncustodial parent (because that parent can gain more tax benefits from the exemptions), but the custodial parent would still retain the tax benefits of filing as an HOH.
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