My husband and I have been living in two separate states for 8 months during 2009. I work ft and have two adult children living with me. One works and was able to file on her own. My son only earns $119 all year. My soon to be ex is on ssi and received some third party sick pay. He also received ssi dependent funds on behalf of our son which he kept. My son recd nothing from those funds. I received no benefit from my husbands income at all.
I want to file separately as head of household and claim our son since I supported him alone. Naturally, no taxes were ever taken out of my husbands income, so he is insisting we file jointly with my son so that I will get stuck paying his taxes too. I am refusing.
I struggled all year to keep a roof over our heads with no help from him. Why should I be forced to suffer at the hand of IRS simply because I couldn't afford the divorce. I have recently learned I could file for divorce on-line and plan on doing just that. Am I liable for his taxes? I have been getting the shaft every which way by this man and because of himfor 25 years. ENOUGH ALREADY. My income is approx 28k. His another 25k.
Thank you for your advise.

On the joint return the liabilities are joint.
For head of household you must be unmarried or did not live with your spouse for last six months of the year and have a qualifying dependent. Read the requirements for head of household: Your U.S. Tax Return: Filing Status: Head of Household (http://taxipay.blogspot.com/2008/05/head-of-household.html)

By all means file as HOH if you met the six month test mentioned above.
Depending on circumstances claim your son as a qualifying child or relative.

If you do not meet that test file as Married Filing Separately and still claim your son as dependent.

Good luck to you.

Sassy:

Hopefully you have not shared any of your tax information with your soon-to-be-ex, because, based on what you have posted, I would not put past him to prepare the joint return and sign your name, or efile the joint return using an on-line tax website.

The way to prevent this is to file expeditiously as Head of Household. I agree with Five Rings in that it appears you DO qualify to file HoH.