
If you’re going to find time to enjoy happy hours, yoga sessions and baking all while killing it at the office, you better have a calendar to keep it all straight. But almost as important as the ability to keep you organized is how pretty it appears on your screen. These 10 apps are bold, beautiful and ready to keep all your important meetings and weekend adventures in check. We already showed you these 10 calendar apps, but we all know the app machine never stops and brand new ways of making life simple are always on the rise. So browse these 10 new calendars and find your ideal download for 2014.
1. Cal: You’d be hard-pressed to find a more beautiful calendar than this one. Seamlessly view everything from business meetings to family birthdays and even invite friends and clients along all from this useful app. (Free on iOS and Android)
2. Calvetica: Add events in just two quick taps and enjoy an uncluttered, minimalist interface. We’re big fans of how user-friendly this app is and give it major bonus points for the play on Helvetica. ($2.99 on iOS)
3. Tempo: The perfect tool for a busy business life, this app goes way beyond a calendar by helping you alert colleagues when you’re running late, checking your flight status for you and displaying the weather based on your current location. (Free on iOS)
4. TeuxDeux: This app aims to make mobile scheduling as simple as jotting a note on a piece of paper. Enter in your to-dos, shift them around to adhere to your schedule then take great satisfaction in checking them off as you “deux” them. (Free on iOS)
5. Peek: This minimalist calendar is all about ease. Not only does it beautifully toggle between showing your current schedule and helping you add items, it has smart additions like a gesture feature that knows when you’re shading the screen with a hand in bright sun and responds accordingly. ($2.99 on iOS and $4 on Android)
6. Chronos: This is the smartest calendar you’ll ever find. Use another app to schedule your life, then use this one to discover how you’re really spending your time. It runs in the background of your phone to help you meet your goals and keep track of how and where you spend your time. (Free on iOS and Android)
7. Sunrise: Totally integrated with outside tools like LinkedIn, Google Maps and Facebook, you can expect to see the faces of people you’re meeting with, birthdays of your friends and maps for meeting locations all within the same app. (Free on iOS and Android)
8. Awesome Note: It’s all in the name with this app. Awesome Note not only keeps track of it all, but helps you keep personal and professional life separate. Customizable themes make it the perfect fit for every style. ($3.99 on iOS)
9. SaiSuke: Get major perspective on your future with this app, which lets users see daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly calendar views. Manipulate colors and fonts to make it just perfect. ($9.99 on iOS)
10. Informant 3: This app syncs a variety of other mobile tools for a killer user experience. We told you about Pocket Informant with our list of original calendar apps and it’s only gotten better (and cheaper!) over time. ($9.99 on Android)
Do you use an app to stay on track? We’d love to hear about your smart calendar!
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