Head of Household

No need to be so rude.  The taxpayers live in separate households, therefore they each pay more than 50% to maintain a home.

From your original post:

<Can unmarried taxpayers with two children each file as HOH and claim one child?  Each taxpayer has W-2 income.>

Sorry, I missed the part about two separate households. There are plenty of posters here who try to scam the system.

Does one child live more than 50% with one parent? In other words, A lives with Mom and B lives with Dad? Can you check the living arrangements?

Then yes, there can be two HOHs.

Please tell us which publication it was in because that result is so fraudulent as to be illegal(IMO). Were the 2 women lovers or merely housemates? That is different than 2 unmarried straight lovers who share a bedroom.

I can agree with 2 housemates, but not 2 lovers. Your example shows 1 household, not 2, and only 1 person can pay more than 50% of one household.

You can agree with two housemates, but not two lovers.  What does love have to do with it!   If they are two Registered Domestic Partners then they would be treated as married (in some states)  But, if they are unmarried what difference does it make if they touch their junk? 

I'll make it simpler for you.  Two unmarried people rent a two bedroom apartment.  One lives in one room with their child and the other lives in the other room with their child.  Neither uses the others room to live.  They each buy their own food but they do split the utilities.  The total rent for the two bedroom apartment is $600 and they each pay $300 for the part they rent.

Is your calculator working?  

So your 2 housemates are not partners, but are sharing the property to get a better place to call home. Then they are like roommates and they each provide 100% of their own households.

Alternatively, they share a bedroom as boy-boy, girl-girl, or boy-girl, and I treat them as no different than a married couple-one bedroom together equals one household, not two. If my original answer did not come out right I mean that 2 people sharing a home together should be treated the same as a married couple or a non-married couple, meaning only 1 household, unless the 2 are only sharing the place as friends, and not as  "couple."

 In the example you cited you said 2 unmarried parents share a room . They have 2 kids together and she pays for 1 kid and he pays for the other. 1 household, cannot be 2. If 2 were allowed then so could my wife and I. That's fraud in my book.

You called her your wife so I will assume that you are married.  Yes that  would be fraud because, at least, some of the house is shared during the last six months of the year disqualifying both of you from H of H status.  But UNMARRIED  individuals are not married (unless the are RDP) and it does not matter what their sexual orientation is. 

We all can see the what the rules say. The issue here is "what is the legal deffinition of a household" and may there be two households under one roof in some circumstances. 

I had this issue with a client in the early 90's and none since but I remembered the issue and it made sense to me then.  If there has been a court or IRS decision since then I would find out before I advised clients.  

I do not promote fraud, as you suggested! 

I stand by my statement: if they are not married to each other but are together as a couple(regardless of sexual orientation) they cannot have more than one household in the same house/apartment/condo.

If they are not a couple but merely friends sharing a dwelling then there can be 2 households.

See Warren1958 comment below.

I'm just really curious where you get the idea that because a "couple" have the exact same circumstances as roommates that they somehow must be treated as if they were married.  I believe Married is Married and Single is Single.

It looks like Warren1958 agrees with me.

If I understand your post correctly I don't agree. The idea is more on what constitutes a "household". Two single people that live together that share a bedroom will generally be considered one household even though they are not married to eachother. Whereas two single people in separate bedrooms can be considered two households even though it may be one house. The case law that I've seen has other criteria, one that I remember is separate telephone lines.

I don't think that IRS will routinely investigate someone's sleeping arrangement. But if you have two taxpayers each claiming head of household with a single mailing address I suppose that it's possible.

Good point, Warren.  So if two people at the same address, are really in completely different rooms, with their own separate children, and so on, they might both do well to put a statement on the return saying "I live in half of the house at 123 Main Street, Anytown PA, and I provide my child with our portion of the food and shelter.  Another person lives in the other half of the house, providing his child with his portion of the food and shelter.  I qualify as Head of Household."

The only point I was ever trying to make was that this situation is not always black and white.  That there is some gray there and certain situations may exist. 

Tax Allstar, Accountant Man, so rudely responded to the original asker that it got me a little fired up.  And in the end he, you and Amy agreed that there may be some gray.

And in Amy's last post she gives the example of food purchased being the decider.  I say yes, thumbs up!  Document and your good.    

I still don't know where you're coming from, rjgbob. If they are a couple, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status, I believe that they are committing a fraud by claiming that they have 2 households. If they have 2 different addresses, then no one disagrees with you. If they live in the same house, but they are not "together," then many of us also agree with 2 HOHs. But together? Not in my practice.

The original posting, "Can unmarried taxpayers with two children each file as HOH and claim one child?  Each taxpayer has W-2 income, " did not have enough information.

Your postings appear to disagree with my "fraud" statement above. If that is not true then apologize to me, please. I am sorry if I miscontrued your postings.