It provides preferential tax rates and a larger standard deduction for single people caring for qualifying dependents.
[2] The head of household filing status was created in 1951 to acknowledge the additional financial burdens faced by single people caring for dependents.
[6] People who were legally married on the last day of the tax year can still be eligible for the head of household filing status if they satisfy several requirements that enable them to be "considered unmarried".
[7] In that case, the taxpayer can file as a head of household while still being considered married for purposes of the earned income tax credit.
[7] To qualify for head of household filing status, the taxpayer must have paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year.
[7] Costs can include property taxes, mortgage interest, rent, utilities, repairs and maintenance, insurance, and food eaten in the home.
[3][1] It did this, in effect, by extending a "portion of the tax benefits that two-parent families received under the marital income splitting regime adopted nationally in 1948".