How to report child's earned income from mowing lawns for Roth IRA eligibility?

You'll want to file Schedule C (Profit or Loss from Business) and Schedule SE (Self-Employment Tax) with your child's tax return, even though they're below the filing requirement threshold. The IRS needs documentation that shows "earned income" for Roth IRA contribution eligibility. Keep all those notes of payments received - that's actually perfect documentation. You don't need anything formal like invoices for this amount, but your record-keeping is exactly what you'd need if ever questioned. If the total is under $433, there's no self-employment tax due, but you still want to file to establish the earned income. You can't e-file a return with just these forms for a dependent with no filing requirement, so yes, you'll need to paper file.

Just want to share my experience - I was in the exact same situation with my son's dog-walking money last year and struggled figuring out the right way to document it. I found this service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that was super helpful for sorting this out. They confirmed I needed Schedule C and SE for his lawn mowing money and helped me understand exactly what to file to qualify for his Roth IRA contributions. The cool thing was they explained how to properly document everything without triggering unnecessary tax complications. They reviewed our simple payment log and confirmed it was sufficient documentation for IRS purposes.

Update: I actually ended up trying taxr.ai after being skeptical initially. Totally worth it for peace of mind. They confirmed my daughter's babysitting money ($395 last year) qualified for Roth contributions and walked me through exactly what forms to file. What surprised me was learning about some potential pitfalls with kid IRAs I hadn't considered - like making sure the contribution amount doesn't exceed what they actually earned. They also explained how to properly document everything in case of future questions from the IRS, which was actually much simpler than I expected.

For anyone having trouble reaching the IRS about this kind of question - I spent HOURS trying to get someone on the phone for clarification about my son's lawn mowing money and Roth IRA eligibility. Finally found Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) and they got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes when I'd been trying for days on my own. The IRS agent confirmed exactly what forms were needed and that our simple record-keeping was sufficient. They have a demo of how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - basically they navigate the IRS phone tree and wait on hold for you, then call you when they have an agent. Saved me so much frustration when I kept getting disconnected trying on my own.

I was wrong about Claimyr being a scam. I actually tried it after posting that skeptical comment and it legitimately worked. Got through to an IRS agent in about 25 minutes after trying unsuccessfully on my own for over a week. The agent confirmed I needed to file Schedule C and Schedule SE for my daughter's babysitting income even though it was under the filing threshold, specifically to document earned income for her Roth IRA. They also confirmed my simple spreadsheet of payments was sufficient documentation. Saved me hours of frustration and answered my exact question about minimum documentation needed.

Quick tip from experience - make sure the Roth IRA is actually in your child's name with them as the owner (not beneficiary). I messed this up last year with my son's lawn mowing money. Also keep in mind they can only contribute what they actually earned - so if your child made $410, that's their max contribution for the year.

Just be aware there's also a Schedule H you might need if this is considered household employment. The rules are a bit different than for self-employment and the thresholds are different too. Might be worth double-checking which applies in your specific situation.