Capital Commerce

The Curse of the Kiddie Tax

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Posted: January 6, 2009

Amity Shlaes on the kiddie tax and entrepreneurs:

That tax forces not only teens but also college students to pay parental tax rates on investment income after they surpass a certain threshold, $1800 for tax year 2008. The obvious rebuttal is that “this won’t hurt” since most college students don’t make more than several thousands in profit from investment. But what about the one student who thinks the bonanza might be there for his investment? It’s perverse to penalize the most daring.
If college investors can’t take full advantage of bear prices, they may choose to become infrastructure engineers at the modern equivalent of the TVA, not entrepreneurs in the purer sense. We’re going to produce a generation of Organization Men or “Mad Men.”

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Stealing my kids college fund!

We bought shares of stock for our kids 20 years ago so they could pay for their own college. Now we are being pillaged by the Federal Government for wisely investing because of this so-called "kiddie tax". I didn't like the tax before now when it expired at age 18 (because college comes after that time), but now that they raised it to 24 it is absolutely stealing from their college fund. I am not a "fat cat" but simply a working stiff for the past 28 years just trying to scrape by.
The U.S. Congress is a perverse bunch of thieves!!!

Theft victim of GA @ Mar 29, 2009 10:38:27 AM