The “kiddie tax” rules were created to limit the ability of families to save on taxes by simply shifting income – especially investment income – from higher-income family members (like parents) to lower income family members (such as children) to take advantage of their lower tax brackets.
Yet while the kiddie tax rules are unavoidable for young children, it is often possible to avoid their reach for college students, who are not subject to the kiddie tax if they also generate enough earned income from wages and self-employment, or choose to attend school part time.
Of course, working to generate income should hopefully be its own reward, but by avoiding the kiddie tax, parents can subsequently gift (or liquidate previously gifted) appreciated investments, and allow the child to take advantage of what is currently a 0% Federal tax rate on long-term capital gains for those in the bottom two tax brackets. Repeated over the span of several years, this can add up to a material amount of tax savings for the family, especially when coupled with other tax savings opportunities of a financially-self-supported child, including a larger standard deduction, personal exemptions, and the American Opportunity Tax Credit!