
[Update 9/17: iOS 8 is available to download… NOW! You might not have an iPhone 6 at your disposal, but you can still give your phone a serious upgrade with Apple’s latest, greatest operating system. Below is a look at what to expect. Woo!]
1. Interactive notifications: You’ll be able to really multi-task now thanks to interactive notifications that let you respond to texts, calendar invites and reminders straight from the drop down banners. Cross things off your to do list, text your friends, RSVP to a Facebook event and star an email all without leaving the app you’re in.
2. Name group texts: The group message will never be the same. Every time you’re in one in iOS 8, you can tap Details in the top right to name a conversation if you want to dig it up later.
3. Leave group texts: Done with this group message? Leave it! Or delete someone else. Add and remove threads from your inbox/life.
4. Apply Do Not Disturb to group texts: Never again be in an important meeting with your phone buzzing every few seconds with friends trying to plan the upcoming weekend.
5. Send self-destructing selfies: You can send video and photo messages to friends that will disappear later so they don’t take up space.
6. Send voice memos: Using the new “Tap to Talk” feature you can send audio messages to friends who can simply hold the iPhone to their ear (like they’re making a call!) to listen to them.
7. Spy on your friends: You’ll have the option of disclosing your location to people you’re iMessaging with in the next iOS update to ultimately answer the question “where are you?” if you so choose.
8. Read your texts on your computer: Apple is making it easier to sync up all the devices in your digital life, including reading SMS on your computer and placing calls on your Mac, which you can then use as a speakerphone.
9. View convos like blogs: Tap to browse photos and videos in a thread and see everything you’ve sent back and forth in each conversation.
10. Share files across all devices: With iCloud Drive, you’ll be able to to store and access any kind of file across different devices. Start writing an email or tweaking a presentation when you’re on the train, then send it to your computer for the finishing touches.
11. Enhanced double tap: When you press the home button twice, you’ll be able to call, text or FaceTime people you’ve recently talked to from the top scroll and access your Favorites if you swipe to the right.
12. A Spotlight that really gets you: Enhanced Spotlight seems like an NBD update, but it means more information with each search and might lead to less bouncing around between apps.
13. Reach Inbox Zero in less time: The new mail features promise to save you some time. Straight from your inbox, you can now swipe to mark an email as read or flag it for follow-up similar to inbox clutter busters like Mailbox.
14. Go between messages: Bring multi-tasking to Mail with the ability to swipe down while you’re working on an email to search through your inbox for another one.
15. Get instant notifications: Mail will recognize reservations, flight confirmations and contact info and see if you want to add them to your calendar or contacts.
16. Updated parental controls: Now that family members share devices and iTunes accounts, parents have even more to oversee — like purchases. When your kiddies go to buy a new iPad game, an add-on to their favorite app or want to rent Frozen AGAIN the parents’ device will get to automatically approve or deny the purchase.
17. Have (more) fun with the family: With Family Sharing, up to six family members can share purchases from the iTunes store (that’s music, apps, movies and more) across all of your devices — talk about a sweet family plan.
18. Make family photo albums: Some of you might already be using iOS 7’s similar function to share pix with fam and friends, but now Family Sharing will automatically set up a family photo stream for you to add vacation and bday memories to show up on all of your devices.
19. Share a family calendar: Once you’re all linked, the chalkboard paint calendar in the kitchen finally has an easy-to-access digital home. Keep everyone super organized with one calendar and set up reminders for everyone with important events.
20. Better-than-ever AutoCorrect: Your keyboard gets a whole new IQ enhancement in the predictive department. It takes things a step farther and instead of assuming the word *it* might use, it will pick up on how you talk to each contact to get a better sense of the word *you* might use.
21. Text suggestions: If someone texts you“want to go to dinner or a movie?” the keyboard will recognize that and offer you the option of clicking “dinner” or “movie” to respond.
22. A better Photos app: With Instagram trying to lure you away from your phone’s native digital camera app, Apple is upping their game with more smart editing controls to edit pix closer-to-Photoshop levels.
23. A huge photo library: Find and flip through every picture across all of your devices. New suggested search will even give you options of things to dig up based on favorites, different time periods and your location.
24. Make Time-lapse videos: Get ready for a cloud selfie or two hundred — the next update will introduce a whole new camera mode for taking time-lapse videos!
25. A home for all your health: The new Health app will be a one-stop profile for your physical activity and health, pulling in data from any apps and wearables, then communicating the info to whoever needs it (think: other apps, your trainer and even your doctor).
26. Track your stats: Organize and manage what you’re tracking just like you would in a digital notification center — except here we’re talking about fitness, lab results, sleep, nutrition or vitals.
27. Another emergency option on lock: Create an emergency card with your ID and important info (like blood type and allergies) that can be accessed from your Lock screen.
28. Direct line to your doctor: HealthKit is a new developer tool that will allow health and fitness apps to access your health data and even communicate your stats straight to and from your doctors. Mayo Clinic is the first healthcare provider to join.
29. Test apps: New program dubbed TestFlight will allow developers to invite users to beta test their apps. Get in on that.
30. Preview apps: Developers will be able to show off more of their apps’ experience with video previews in the App Store that give users a test drive before they buy.
What Apple news are you still holding out for? Which of the above features are you most excited about seeing on your future phone?
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