homestead exemption not married or hoh

[FoolAndHisMoney]

Wanted to add,..........

I've seen a filing on PACER here where it was a single mother with one younger dependent child and an older dependent as well. The older one was a 25, 27 year old male. I'm guessing from all the medical bills being discharged, the older male was either mentally or physically handicapped. The attny was including that person as a dependent for BK purposes.

If most of the debts were for medical then things like the means test, disposable income, household members probably don't matter anyway. Since the credit card lobby owns congress you will notice in the history of bankruptcy that 707b, "substantial abuse" under old law or "presumption of abuse" now only applies to "consumer debts". Someone with $500 disposable income with only medical debts can probably breeze through. It's only credit card debtors that get a beating since we all abuse the system.

Ark, you should be entitled to the exemption, but some states allow a larger amount if you file married, jointly vs. filing single.

[SinkingFast]

Excuse me. You were right.

I was referring to the definition of a Family Household.

Household.
A household consists of all the people who occupy a housing unit. A house, an apartment or other group of rooms, or a single room, is regarded as a housing unit when it is occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters; that is, when the occupants do not live and eat with any other persons in the structure and there is direct access from the outside or through a common hall.

A household includes the related family members and all the unrelated people, if any, such as lodgers, foster children, wards, or employees who share the housing unit. A person living alone in a housing unit, or a group of unrelated people sharing a housing unit such as partners or roomers, is also counted as a household. The count of households excludes group quarters. There are two major categories of households, "family" and "nonfamily". (See definitions of Family household and Nonfamily household).


Household, family, or subfamily, Size of.
The term "size of household" includes all the people occupying a housing unit. "Size of family" includes the family householder and all other people in the living quarters who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. "Size of related subfamily" includes the husband and wife or the lone parent and their never-married sons and daughters under 18 years of age. "Size of unrelated subfamily" includes the reference person and all other members related to the reference person. If a family has a related subfamily among its members, the size of the family includes the members of the related subfamily.

Family.
A family is a group of two people or more (one of whom is the householder) related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together; all such people (including related subfamily members) are considered as members of one family. Beginning with the 1980 Current Population Survey, unrelated subfamilies (referred to in the past as secondary families) are no longer included in the count of families, nor are the members of unrelated subfamilies included in the count of family members. The number of families is equal to the number of family households, however, the count of family members differs from the count of family household members because family household members include any non-relatives living in the household.

Family group.
A family group is any two or more people (not necessarily including a householder) residing together, and related by birth, marriage, or adoption. A household may be composed of one such group, more than one, or none at all. The count of family groups includes family households, related subfamilies, and unrelated subfamilies.

Family household.
A family household is a household maintained by a householder who is in a family (as defined above), and includes any unrelated people (unrelated subfamily members and/or secondary individuals) who may be residing there. The number of family households is equal to the number of families. The count of family household members differs from the count of family members, however, in that the family household members include all people living in the household, whereas family members include only the householder and his/her relatives. See the definition of family.

http://www.census.gov/population/www/cps/cpsdef.html

And just an FYI,..........

Householder.
The householder refers to the person (or one of the people) in whose name the housing unit is owned or rented (maintained) or, if there is no such person, any adult member, excluding roomers, boarders, or paid employees. If the house is owned or rented jointly by a married couple, the householder may be either the husband or the wife. The person designated as the householder is the "reference person" to whom the relationship of all other household members, if any, is recorded.

The number of householders is equal to the number of households. Also, the number of family householders is equal to the number of families.

Head versus householder. Beginning with the 1980 CPS, the Bureau of the Census discontinued the use of the terms "head of household" and "head of family." Instead, the terms "householder" and "family householder" are used. Recent social changes have resulted in greater sharing of household responsibilities among the adult members and, therefore, have made the term "head" increasingly inappropriate in the analysis of household and family data. Specifically, beginning in 1980, the Census Bureau discontinued its longtime practice of always classifying the husband as the reference person (head) when he and his wife are living together.

The IRS only mentions HoH in conjunction with having dependent children. So according to the IRS, you may not be the HoH, but according to the Census Bureau you can be the HoH.

[no_it_all]

<huge snip>The IRS only mentions HoH in conjunction with having dependent children. So according to the IRS, you may not be the HoH, but according to the Census Bureau you can be the HoH.

Sorta...Like you posted, the Census Bureau does not use the term "Head of Household" any longer. Even when they did (twenty-six years ago!) it didn't mean the same thing as the IRS definition of "Head of Household". One is a statistical, economic term, the other is used for tax filing purposes.

[no_it_all]

Well, no-it-all, don't get your knickers all twisted in knots over this (as dear old Dad used to say) but step back when you are seeing info that doesn't agree with what you've posted and see it as personal, OK?

I have a compulsion to correct misinformation that is posted for those poor souls that don't have the cognitive or reading abilities to decipher code..sorry if that bothers you and you take it personally...To say that "ALL expenses are considered in the IRS formulation for head of household determination is of course...wrong. To say that "two people can be head of household" in a single dwelling is of course also wrong.

This is all just a discussion. If Jane Doe and Sally Bly are equally sharing expenses on a rental house or apartment, and each has a kid or two, and each pays separately for that space to maintain it for her own dependent and food for the child, etc, you are implying neither could be head of household.

Correct.

When I get back into my office next week I'll message you the tax code on this if you want to have fun digging into it.

Not necessary, I have a copy of the code on my desk..You may want to take a peek at it though...Anyway, by then this thread will be buried so deep nobody will remember it...or care.

And apples and oranges are what we are dealing with on issues of census bureau definitions and IRS tax situations.

Exactly..

Also some states have no specific exemptions in BK for a head of household and those that do have "local" practices for defining it. Seems like 3 separate issues have been muddled into one in these posts. I don't know if in any of this discussion we've answered the original poster or made them run for the hills....

Read my first post on this thread I actually answered in two letters!!!

For your edification: BTW, my source of information is IRS publication 501, as amended for 2005. What was your source again?

To claim Head Of Household all of the following MUST be met:
1. You are unmarried or "considered" unmarried by the end of the year.
2. You paid MORE THAN HALF of the cost for upkeeping a home for the year.
3. A "qualifying" person lived with you for more than half the year (note special consideration for parents not living with you).

Whew!! If you have any other questions feel free to ask......

[LaProf]

I was not precise enough in my use of the word "all" as you stated above. Blame it on oversimplifying, not on trying to mislead. On the examples I used, however I was correct. I will provide exact reference to test case/ ruling provided in the IRS instruction manual for auditors next week to anyone wanting to read IRS-speak when I get into the HR Block office. In meantime, this is from the client info sheets we use for helping them make correct decision on filing status.

Keeping up your home

You are keeping up your home only if you pay more than one-half the cost of keeping up the home for the year. Generally, if two or more people keep up the same home, only one of the people could pay more than half the costs and qualify for the head of household filing status. If two or more families occupy the same dwelling but maintain separate finances, and each family does not contribute to the support of the other family, each family may be treated as keeping up a separate home. The taxpayer who provides more than one-half the cost of maintaining that separate home is treated as keeping up that separate home.

[no_it_all]

I will provide exact reference to test case/ ruling provided in the IRS instruction manual for auditors next week to anyone wanting to read IRS-speak when I get into the HR Block office.

Ah, that wouldn't be the same H&R Block that screwed up it's own taxes would it?? You know, the company that had it stock take a dive in February when it was discovered they underestimated their income by a couple of nickels?? (34 million dollars). If so, I rather stick to the IRS Publications and Guidelines...thanks anyway! Just kiddin' Is it online? Shoot me a url..

[no_it_all]

In meantime, this is from the client info sheets we use for helping them make correct decision on filing status.

Correct according to H&R Block or the IRS ?? Actually, I found your info sheet here:

http://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/hoh/selftest/definitions.html#14

What you posted was from the Franchise Tax Board for the State of California..I prefer to base decisions on IRS Publications and Guidelines. Why? H&R Block's opinions aren't really relevant...Nor the tax code of the great left coast state of Kalifornia. My guess is that you did a quick google and came up with this..am I right??

[LaProf]

Thank you for the link. Interesting; much of it is the same language as in what our office uses and also in the handbook (PDF version on my computer is where I got the quote I posted) that I use to train volunteers for the free tax assist program run by the IRS. I'm thinking these are all based on guidelines issued by the IRS; I'll ask our regional director when I see her next week. You can always take this further on one of the tax accounting forums; I think we are getting far afield from BK on this thread.

[no_it_all]

I rooted around the web site of the United States Tax Court checking out some of the decisions...I have a honking headache to show for it...I'm going to get a beer...

[arkansasbk]

Wow. Thanks for all the answers. I walked away from the post for a few days and came back to see plenty of answers. Anyways. The only reason I brought up the original question was because of some local bankruptcy cases happening in Arkansas. Several people's status as head of household were being questioned to see if they were entitled to the homestead exemption. I dug around forever and finally found the exact definition of homestead exemption in Arkansas.

It is a very archaic, old law that could probably use some updating. In Arkansas only married or head of household individuals are eligible for the Arkansas homestead exemption. Head of household according to Arkansas only counts as a man who supports a family or a widow. Obviously I don't qualify.

Then I tried to look into the federal bankruptcy exemptions. I'd always heard it considered a homestead exemption. When I looked up the code, it didn't mention anything about eligibility requirements for the exemption. Sooooo. Long story short. I think if I filed using Arkansas exemptions, they would be able to seize my home, but using Federal exemptions, I should be in the clear.

Long post. Just trying to clarify.