Head of Household question

[Billwnh1]

Hi all,

I have a question. I am a single dad and my ex and I have joint custody of my son. He lives with me for half the year. In our divorce agreement it is written that I will be claiming him as a dependent

Last year on Turbotax, I filed HOH. This year it is telling me that I need a qualifying dependent, which means that I have to say that my son lives with me for more than half a year, in other words, 7 months or I file single, which pretty much wipes out my return.

This is what the Tax Expert at TurboTax told me
"The general rule to qualify for head of household is that the qualifying child has to live with you for the full year. However, in the case of parents with a split custody arrangement, where the child lives 50% with each parent, each parent provides over ½ of the cost of their own home, and each parent provides about 50% of child?s support, the Head of Household filing status goes to the parent with the higher ?Adjusted Gross Income? (AGI).

Since you stated that all of these conditions apply to you, and that you had a higher AGI than the other parent, you should be able to claim head of household (HOH) filing status. In your situation, I would recommend that you efile your return with the HOH filing status. In the event that you get an efile rejection error, you should print and ?paper file? the return along with an explanation for selecting the HOH filing status."

Should I follow this advice and file ?

Thanks

Bill