What defines the Head of Household filing status?

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Head of Household is defined by two main ideas: you’re not married (or you’re treated as unmarried for tax purposes), and you pay more than half the cost of keeping up a home for a qualifying person. That qualifying person is typically a dependent like a child or certain relatives who lived with you for more than half the year, with an exception for a qualifying parent where you don’t have to have the parent live with you if you maintain their main home and cover more than half the costs. Because you meet both conditions—unmarried (or considered unmarried) and paying over half the home maintenance costs for a qualifying person—you fit the Head of Household filing status. The other options don’t align with these requirements: they either involve being married, or misstate the need to be unmarried or to provide the main home costs for a qualifying person.