No, you may not file as head of household because you weren't legally separated from your spouse or considered unmarried at the end of the tax year. To be considered unmarried at the end of a tax year, your spouse may not be a member of your household during the last 6 months of the tax year and you must meet other requirements. In this case, your spouse was a member of your household during the last 6 months of the tax year, so you cannot be considered unmarried.

Your filing status for the year will be either married filing separately or married filing jointly.

You cannot claim the credit for childcare expenses or the earned income tax credit because these credits require married taxpayers to file a joint return to be eligible for the credit. You may be eligible to claim these credits if you decide to file a joint return with your spouse.

• Some taxpayers using the married filing separately filing status can be treated as not married to claim the earned income tax credit or the credit for childcare expenses. To qualify, the spouse claiming the credits cannot file jointly with the other spouse, needs to satisfy certain other requirements (for example, not have the same principal residence as the other spouse for the last six months of the year or have a written separation agreement), and must have a qualifying child living with them for more than half the year.

See What is my filing status? and Publication 501, Dependents, Standard Deduction and Filing Information for information about filing status.