Say you operate your business as a sole proprietorship, as a single-member LLC that is treated as a sole proprietorship for tax purposes, as a husband-wife partnership, or as an LLC that is treated as a husband-wife partnership. Great! That means you can hire your under-age-18 child (as a legitimate employee) and his or her wages will be exempt from Social Security tax, Medicare tax, and federal unemployment (FUTA) tax. In fact, the FUTA tax exemption lasts until your employee-child reaches age 21. You can hire your child part-time, full-time, or whatever works for you and the kid.
Thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), your employee-child can use his or her standard deduction to shelter up to $12,000 of 2018 wages paid by your business from the federal income tax. For 2017, the standard deduction was only $6,350, but the TCJA nearly doubled it. So under the new law, your child can shelter almost twice as much wage income with the increased standard deduction. That makes hiring your kid a better idea than ever.
Bottom Line: For 2018, your child will owe nothing to the Feds on the first $12,000 of wages, unless the kid has income from other sources. Your kid can then set aside some or all of the wages and contribute money to a Roth IRA (more on that later) or a college fund.
Tax advantages for you
When you hire your child, you get a business tax deduction (for employee wage expense) for money you might have just shoveled out to the kid anyway. The deduction reduces your federal income tax bill, your self-employment tax bill (if applicable), and your state income tax bill (if applicable).
If your business is incorporated
What if you operate your business as a corporation? In that case, your child’s wages are subject to Social Security, Medicare, and FUTA taxes just like for any other employee. However, multiple tax breaks are still available. You can deduct your child’s wages as a business expense on your corporation’s tax return; you child can shelter the wages sheltered from federal income tax with his or her standard deduction ($12,000 for 2018), and your child can use the wages to fund annual Roth IRA contributions or save for college.
I’m gettin old 
