@DaveF1006 the kiddie tax applies only to unearned income a child receives from income-producing property (or investment property), such as cash, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and real estate. Any salary or wages that a child earns through full or part-time employment (or self-employment) are not subject to the kiddie tax rules -- that income is taxed at the child's regular income tax rate.
The entire premise of this thread is about whether or not a parent paying their child cash to do household chores like cleaning, laundry, gardening and taking out trash counts as earned income. Child using that earned income to contribute to their custodial Roth IRA. Child doesn’t report cash since it’s under the $12,400 annual limit required to file taxes. Parent pays cash so doesn’t issue a W2. We agree that cash is considered earned income. However some think that paying child cash to do things around the house is not considered earned income. Some articles support that while some articles indicate that money earned from doing chores counts as earned income and you just have to keep logs to back it up. It appears to be a grey area. So unless someone can specifically point to an IRS link that says cash paid from parent to child to do tasks around the home does NOT count as earned income, then all goes
