Hi - my dependant son raised money for a college film project through Kickstarter in tax year 2019. According to IRS Pub 501, if he's a dependant he doesn't have to file if his earned income was less than 12,200. It wasn't - only about $3,000 from Kickstarter pledges for the project (and his expenses for the project in 2019 were actually a bit more than that.) He also had an internship in 2019 and they gave him about $700 total for 11 days work plus provided lodging.
Does he need to file? The IRS Pub is pretty clear the answer is no, but Kickstarter makes it a bit confusing on their site. They talk in general about taxes and use examples of funding as low as $1,000 but don't go into cases like dependants, etc.
Thanks for any help on this.
