
As much as you might try to avoid drama in your real life, when it comes to spats in Hollywood, it’s hard to look away sometimes. This year proved to be an epic one for celebrity beefs, and while not every single clash of personalities is worth remembering, we think, looking back, these spats will prove to be big stories in the year’s timeline.
1. Kanye West and Taylor Swift: When Kanye released The Life of Pablo in January, the lyrics to “Famous” set off what felt like an entire year of drama between the two camps. “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex,” Kanye rapped. “I made that b***h famous.” Taylor’s squad immediately came to her defense, though Taylor kept pretty quiet until using her Grammys acceptance speech a few weeks later as a giant subtweet to Kanye. Kanye maintained that Taylor had given him her blessing to use the lyric, but in the meantime, people stood behind Taylor. (Photo via Larry Busacca/Getty)
2. Rob Kardashian and the Rest of the Kardashians: Rob’s new relationship with Blac Chyna — his half-sister Kylie Jenner’s boyfriend’s ex-gf and mother of his kid — was not exactly met with enthusiasm in the early parts of 2016, with Khloe even kicking Rob out of her house. The family tensions ebbed and flowed all year and continue to rage on, of course, but now with baby Dream in the picture, we hope things settle in this family.
taylor deleted these iconic pics that will forever live in my heart pic.twitter.com/smEFgPPmf7
— katia claus (@ginnypottrr) June 15, 2016
3. Calvin Harris and Taylor Swift: After Tay and Calvin broke up and she immediately started dating Tom Hiddleston, the two played out their drama in modern public fashion, deleting old pictures and unfollowing each other on social media. It came to a glorious ahem, dramatic head when Calvin went OFF on Tay on Twitter when she claimed songwriting credit on his new hit. Eventually things calmed down, and Calvin even sounded remorseful and mature over the situation in an interview with GQ. Phew.
Here is the entire conversation Taylor & Kanye had, judge for yourself. pic.twitter.com/InTjvPGKe3
— Shady Music Polls (@TheShadyPolls) July 18, 2016
4. Kim Kardashain and Taylor Swift: The ultimate in celeb feuds this year. In July, Kim Kardashian Snapchatted video footage of Kanye having a phone convo with Taylor in which she gives him the okay to use the lyrics in “Famous.” The internet. Lost. Its mind. Of course, Kim’s squad took her side while Taylor’s squad took hers (and some were confusingly neutral). Taylor more or less retreated from the public eye, asking to be “excluded from the narrative” and quietly continuing her relationship with Tom Hiddleston (which might have been staged to distract from the Kimye drama). In the end, Kim’s star rose, while Tay’s fizzled.
@KimKardashian I truly hope you realize how important setting goals are for young women, teaching them we have so much more to offer than-
— Chloë Grace Moretz (@ChloeGMoretz) March 7, 2016
5. Chloë Grace Moretz and the Kardashians: When Kim Kardashian broke the internet with her tastefully censored nude mirror selfie in the spring, Chloe Grace Moretz felt it was her duty to police how Kim uses her body, tweeting that women should teach young girls that they have more uses for the world than just their bodies. Kim and Khloe dragged Chloë. The whole thing was ugly but ultimately fizzled out.
6. Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez: The #JustinDeactivatedParty was one of the Twitter events of the summer, with fans celebrating when Justin Bieber removed his Instagram account. The reason? His ex-gf Selena Gomez. When Justin was posting tons of pics of his new then-gf, 17-year-old Sofia Richie, fans were being ULTRA mean. Justin threatened to delete his account. Selena posted, then deleted, a comment telling Justin that if he couldn’t take the heat, he should stop posting pictures of his gf. Ouch! He did just that. The effects of this one are still being felt, as Justin has actually never reactivated his account. (Photo via Pascal Le Segretain/Getty)
7. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt: Hollywood’s golden couple caused shockwaves when they announced their divorce a few months ago, and if that wasn’t enough, it got ugly, fast. In her filing, Angelina cited irreconcilable differences, but details about concerns over Brad’s drug and alcohol use around the children and an investigation into child abuse quickly came to light (Pitt was eventually cleared of the charges). While both have spoken about it only in official statements, we’re sure it’s some tense times — recently, Angelina was making what seemed to be pretty calculated legal moves to keep the whole thing very public. (Photo via Jonathan Leibson/Getty)
What celeb beefs did you follow in 2016? No judgement! Let us know @BritandCo.
(Featured photo via Larry Busacca/Getty)
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