Custodial Roth IRA question (eBay sales)

[FiguringItOut]

My kid is selling some of her stuff on eBay.  So far she made around $350.  Can I open Roth IRA for her?  Can paypal records be used to verify earned income?  Thanks

[MDM]

You might want to read What is Compensation?.

It's not clear whether this income qualifies.

[Bucksandreds]

My kid is selling some of her stuff on eBay.  So far she made around $350.  Can I open Roth IRA for her?  Can paypal records be used to verify earned income?  Thanks

From what I know you can literally hire your children to do a job like mow the lawn and keep your own records. if they don't make $600 in the year they don't even need to pay taxes, from what I know. You could put 100% of that into an IRA

[Bucksandreds]

Here's an article that goes more in depth about my answer. Keep good records. There doesn't even need to be a paper trail from the person paying, from what I gather. As soon as my sons are 12ish they'll be mowing my lawn and their grandparents lawns and all that money will go into a roth IRA. Daughter will babysit to do the same. Remember, you really just need good records that you can keep in the event of an audit.

https://www.kiplinger.com/article/saving/T046-C001-S001-roth-iras-for-children.html

[MDM]

From what I know you can literally hire your children to do a job like mow the lawn and keep your own records. if they don't make $600 in the year they don't even need to pay taxes, from what I know. You could put 100% of that into an IRA

See About Schedule SE (Form 1040) | Internal Revenue Service.

Someone filing as self-employed can make up to $433.12 (e.g., Schedule C-EZ, line 3) without being liable for self-employment tax.  Above that, it's 15.3% on 92.35% of total net self-employed earnings (again, e.g., Schedule C-EZ, line 3).