@sjrcpa "They have bigger fish to fry - $1.9 billion."

Well, actually, $1.9 trillion, but you're close.  

Unemployment is not the only problem when determining "unearned income."  It also includes pensions.  Many families entitled to military survivor pensions chose to divert this income to the kids because if paid as widow benefits, it would be reduced by VA benefits.  Or something like that. Then Congress changed the Kiddie Tax to make the rates the same as for trusts and estates, which hit the highest bracket in a short amount of time.  That didn't go over too well, so they changed it back to being taxed at the parental rate.  

I don't think it's mostly teen-agers who collected large sums of unemplooyment.  Most are the college kids in the 20-23 age range.  And I can remember clients who were full-time college students, 20 years ago, earning $20,000 up to $40,000 a year or more.  (In a couple cases, they were working on commission.)  The paltry $600 a week for a few months would not have matched their lost earnings.