26 U.S.C. § 73 — Services of child

(a) Treatment of amounts received: Money a child earns for their work counts as the child's income for tax purposes. This is true even if the parent — not the child — actually receives the money. The parent does not report it as their own income. (b) Treatment of expenditures: If money counts as the child's income only because of rule (a), then any of that money the parent or child spends is treated as if the child spent it, not the parent. (c) Parent defined: In this section, "parent" means anyone who has parental rights and duties for the child — not just a biological or legal parent in the usual sense — as long as they are entitled to the child's services. (d) Cross reference: This section points to another law, section 6201(c), which explains how the IRS can still collect this tax from the parent in some cases.