
Ah, we’re nearing the end of summer and that means two things. Re:Make will be here before we know it and Halloween (aka our fave time of the year, duh) is approaching faster than PSL season. While we’ve been prepping for the month where we get to dress up in a million costumes for some time now — inspo alert: D23 Expo + random pop culture moments — it’s time we help couples get into the ideation costume stage. Check out 21 current pop culture-related couples costume ideas below and try to pick only one for you and your boo/BFF.
1. OITNB‘s Piper Chapman + Stella Carlin: Piper and Alex are soooooooo Halloween 2014. Get with the current season’s lady lovelines by stepping into a prison jumpsuit with your GF or just your BFF and work it as Litchfield’s new hot couple — tatts + short ‘do required. Dive even deeper into the women’s prison romances and show up to a party or two as one of OITNB‘s budding relationships going down at Litchfield: Poussey Washington and Brook Soso or Galina “Red” Reznikov and C.O. Sam Healy. (Photo via JoJo Whilden/Netflix)
2. Trainwreck‘s Amy + Aaron: This comedy was by far our fave movie of the summer. It starred + was written by Amy Schumer though, so how could we not love it?! Make your main squeeze dress up as Bill Hader’s sports doc while you slide into a fab dress and serve up jokes all night long. Sounds like the kinda trainwreck we’d want to be involved in. (Photo via Universal)
3. Taylor Swift + Calvin Harris: How deep is your love for this couple? Enough to shake it off (and dress) like ’em for a night? We hope so but if your man isn’t into T.Swift just ditch him and dress up with your girls “Bad Blood” style instead… because that will never go out of style ;) (Photo via @taylorswift)
4. Empire‘s Cookie + Lucious Lyon: We already know Cookie provides plenty of inspo for you to werk it as the Queen of the FOX show for a dressed up evening, but so does the man by her side. Go binge (or re-binge) the season and pick out stunner outfits — and catchphrases — for you and your guy to hurl at people throughout the night while they stop and stare at your takes on Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard’s already iconic characters. (Photo via Empire Facebook)
5. Sister‘s Jane Jones + Maura Ellis: Who cares if this Tina Fey/Amy Poehler comedy doesn’t come out until December. Fully prep for the premiere by dressing up in ridiculous outfits as the adult sisters months prior so you’ve got an outfit at the ready come December 18. (Photo via YouTube)
6. Fuller House‘s Uncle Jesse + Aunt Becky: Trust us, we’re ALL excited about Netflix’s Full House revival. What makes us even more excited is the return of Nicky and Alex’s mom and dad. You could either go the throwback route and dress like John Stamos and Lori Loughlin did back in the ’90s or look into your own crystal ball and go as modern day Jesse and Becky. Either way everyone will totally be shouting, “You got it, dude!” (Photo via @loriloughlin)
7. Pitch Perfect 2‘s Fat Amy + Bumper: If you and your partner are not only hilarious (and maybe slightly awkward) together but also LOVE to sing you MUST go as Rebel Wilson and Adam DeVine’s characters from the aca-sequel. If for some reason you’re not into ripping your leotard open while hanging in the air a la Fat Amy, you could always dress up as Anna Kendrick and Skylar Astin’s Beca + Jesse, or just get real intense, pick up an accent and impress your pals as Das Sound Machine’s Kommissar + Pieter Krämer. (Photo via Universal)
8. Jurassic World ‘s Owen + Claire: If you can figure out a way to get dinosaurs to chase you then you should without a doubt do a couple’s outfit as Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard’s characters. While you’re at it why not make Jurassic World a real thing?! ;) (Photo via Universal)
9. Hot Pursuit‘s Cooper + Daniella Riva: Not in a relationship? Don’t fret because you can totally pull off a couple’s costume with your gal pal and there’s really not another duo more entertaining than Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara’s characters from the summer comedy. Handcuff yourselves to one another for maximum effect. (Photo via Warner Bros.)
10. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt‘s Kimmy Schmidt + Titus Andromedon: Only way to do this pair right is by wearing lots of color and singing “Peeno Noir” all night long. That’s not too hard of a task, right? (Photo via Netflix)
11. Grace + Frankie‘s Grace Hanson + Frankie Bergstein: Do some foreshadowing with your bestie and go as outspoken, lovable octogenarians. You’ll be comfy all night long while getting plenty of LOLs, trust. (Photo via Netflix)
12. UnREAL‘s Rachel Goldberg + Quinn King: If you and your best girl are the definition of girl bosses then you are basically required to show up as these two badass women. But if you’re going with your man as a couple and not your BFF there’s other options like Quinn’s paramour Chet Wilton or Rachel’s show-within-a-show bachelor Adam Cromwell or her cameraman on-again off-again dude Jeremy Caner. Plenty of choices, people! (Photo via UnREAL Facebook)
13. Jane the Virgin‘s Jane Villanueva + Rafael Solano: Oh the ways I could count why you should be this adorable duo. If for some reason you’re #TeamMichael though, you can totally swap out Rafael for him or go a different route as Jane’s mother and father Xiomara Villanueva + Rogelio De La Vega. Any way you do it, make sure you’ve got a voice-over narrator with you the whole night to complete the look. (Photo via @cwjanethevirgin)
14. Fifty Shades of Grey‘s Anastasia Steele + Christian Grey: Live those S+M fantasies for the night and hit up Halloween spots as this intense couple. (Photo via Universal)
15. Nicki Minaj + Meek Mill: Do you really need a reason to dress up as this badass duo?! Okay, here’s five! Do it up real big and go “Anaconda” if you really want to make an impression. (Photo via @nickiminaj)
16. How to Get Away With Murder‘s Connor Walsh + Oliver: This ABC drama has plenty of couple inspo to go around. Whether you wanna be Wes Gibbins + Rebecca Sutter, Annalise Keating + Nate Lahey, Asher Millstone + Bonnie Winterbottom or Laurel Castillo + Frank Delfino just make sure you give ambiguous responses to every question all night. How else would you and your date perfectly play the mysterious part? (Photo via ABC)
17. Paper Town‘s Quentin + Margo: The easiest way to become Cara Delevingne? Dress up like her character from the John Green adaptation. Done + done. (Photo via Twentieth Century Fox)
18. Difficult People‘s Billy Epstein + Julie Kessler: Give people a difficult time at that party all night long by getting snazzy in an outfit and sassy with your mouth + Halloween partner in crime. Just make sure if you’re making people shed a few tears it’s from laughs and not complete insults. (Photo via Hulu)
19. Princess Charlotte + Prince George: Adults can wear onesies, too! Or, if you’ve got two little ones, have them recreate the first photos of the royal sibs all night long. When all else fails just draw some ideas from Kate Middleton’s style and throw a suit on your man to easily look like Prince William. (Photo via Getty)
20. Andy Cohen + Wacha: If you’re the person that wants to drag your pup along for a night out partying (hi, me!) just go as one of the most popular canine-human duos out there. This is my #1 option, trust + believe. (Photo via Robert Trachtenberg/EW)
21. Ted‘s John + Ted: Since not everyone has a pooch, take the next best option with you: a teddy bear. Drink beer, share it with the adorable plush and have the night of your life. (Photo via Universal)
Will you be dressing up as one of these pop culture duos for Halloween this year? Let us know your picks in the comments.
Welcome to Selfmade Finance School, our new money series with Block Advisors to help small business owners with their tax, bookkeeping, and payroll needs year-round. This week, we explore the tax implications of bringing family members into your business.
The question for today is this: Does hiring your family members make sense for your business? Let me be clear. This is not a piece about whether hiring your family members makes sense for your relationships with those family members. As someone who is part of a family business, I could fill up a lot more than 600 words on my opinions about that. For today's purposes, we focus on whether it makes sense from an overall "good business and tax implication" perspective. As it turns out, there is a decent amount of tax nuance when it comes to employing your family. Let's break it down based on relationship to the employee:
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Spouses Who Are In Business Together
Personally, if I had to be in business with my husband, it would not go well. However, many couples build viable, strong businesses together and I say, good for them! Depending on how you have your business entity structured, it will make a big difference on the tax treatment of you and your spouse working as partners. Because a business jointly owned and operated by a married couple is generally treated as a partnership for Federal tax purposes, the spouses must comply with filing and record keeping requirements imposed on partnerships and their partners. The election to file two Schedule C (Form 1040) forms, (one for each spouse) permits certain married co-owners to avoid filing partnership returns, provided that each spouse separately reports a share of all the businesses' items of income, gain, loss, deduction, and credit. Under the election, both spouses will be subject to self-employment tax and on net earnings from self-employment and receive credit for Social Security earnings.
One Spouse Employs Another
If you have a dynamic where your spouse is an employee of your business, then your spouse's wages are subject to income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes. If you are self-employed (not a corporation or a partnership), your spouse's pay does not have to be included in your federal unemployment tax account (FUTA) contributions and payments. However, if your business is a corporation or a partnership you must include that spouse's pay in your unemployment tax contribution calculation.
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You Employ Your Child
First, let's be clear. I work in my family business, but I am an adult, so I am treated just like a normal employee. However, if you, for example, run a family restaurant and want to hire your children under 18 to work for you, there are some tax benefits. But first, you should check with your state for rules on how many hours minors can work (in non-agricultural jobs) and reference the Fair Labor Standards Act for information on limitations on the kinds of work children can perform.
"This is an often overlooked or under-utilized strategy. Paying your children for true services they provide in your business can be a powerful tax-saving tool," says Cathi Reed, Block Advisors Regional Director. "If you are a sole-proprietorship or single member LLC, and the child is less than 18 years of age, the business is not required to withhold FICA or payroll taxes. The child can use his or her standard deduction against income you pay."
You Hire Your Parent
Oh dear. If you are brave enough to do this, know that you will need to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on your parent's wages and make the appropriate withholdings, but you don't have to pay unemployment taxes. Now all you have to do is convince your parent that you are the boss. Have fun with that!
Is Hiring Family Members Worth It For The Tax Benefits?
"There are some positive tax advantages to hiring family members. It's important to treat a family member like any other employee. Hiring your children can result in substantial savings for businesses. Make sure your child has real, age-appropriate work to do and a reasonable pay rate, comparable to other employees. Consult with a Block Advisors small business certified tax pro to ensure that you are complying with all requirements," advises Reed. "Block Advisors, a team within H&R Block, is dedicated to meeting the tax, bookkeeping and payroll needs of small business owners year-round. To start working with the tax experts at Block Advisors, visit blockadvisors.com."
In my opinion, you should not hire a family member solely because of the tax benefits. You should always hire based on whether that person is right for the job and keep in mind how this hire could materially impact your relationship with that person and others in your family. Finally, as I mentioned, make sure you have a tax professional on your team when making these determinations. As you can see, things can get a little tricky!
*All details were sourced from IRS.gov and blockadvisors.com
The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those held by Kestra Investment Services, LLC or Kestra Advisory Services, LLC. This is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations for any individual. It is suggested that you consult your financial professional, attorney, or tax advisor with regards to your individual situation. Comments concerning the past performance are not intended to be forward looking and should not be viewed as an indication of future results. Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC (Kestra IS), member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC (Kestra AS), an affiliate of Kestra IS. O'Keeffe Financial Partners and any other entity listed herein is not affiliated with Kestra IS or Kestra AS Investor Disclosures: https://bit.ly/KF-Disclosures