system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How come minors have to pay taxes in the US? Since they can't vote, shouldn't they be tax exempt regardless of their income?
gpt
If minors were exempted from paying taxes, this would create a huge loophole in the tax code. Parents would put all of their securities in their children's names, so that they never had to pay taxes on the interest and dividends. Note that to a small extent, people actually do do this, but the tax code addresses it and has removed some of the tax advantages. Regardless of this loophole, people who are prohibited from voting still have to pay taxes--"no taxation without representation" is more of an ideological or cultural belief and is irrelevant for legal purposes.