
“Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays…” And by home, that song definitely meant the kitchen. The kitchen is where holiday memories happen, whether it’s decorating sugar cookies with the kids, sipping eggnog in the evenings or trying to master grandma’s secret recipes. Before the madness of the season descends, stock up on a few essentials (and a few “just because” treats) and get your kitchen ready for a season of baking adventures. Cue the holiday music.
1. DIY Kitchen Towel: With lots of baking comes many, many messes. But when towels are this easy and fun to personalize, you won’t even mind wiping up yet another shower of sprinkles. (via Brit + Co)
2. Snowflake Dough Cutters ($15): Cover a pie with these lacy embellishments for some serious kitchen cred. It also looks like a sneaky way to dress up a store-bought pie when the holiday season gets too stressful for homemade treats.
3. Silpat Silicone Cookie Sheet Liners (from $22): Save yourself from last-minute trips to the store to get wax paper or spray grease and invest in one of these cookie sheet liners. The French swear these liners are the secret ingredient to pastry perfection… and they do seem to know what they are talking about when it comes to baking.
4. Milk Bottle Market List ($10): Stick this cute notepad on your fridge to make sure you are stocked up on all the essentials like flour, eggs and butter. Lots and lots of butter.
5. Customizable Cookie Stamp ($15): The set is equipped with the entire alphabet so you can personalize your cookies with every single lyric from “Jingle Bells.”.
6. Stone Canisters ($10): This is the year to finally get all your spices and baking supplies out of that ugly plastic packaging and into something a little more counter-friendly. The wooden lid seals the containers and you can always print off little labels so you don’t mix up your cinnamon with your nutmeg.
7. Five Ingredient Baking by Jennifer McHenry ($20): How many times have your baking aspirations been crushed by an ingredient list a mile long? When you don’t have the time or budget to spend on lengthy recipes, grab some ideas out of this awesome cookbook and check holiday baking off your to-do list.
8. DIY Mini Cupcake Stand: You put a lot of work into decorating those little cupcakes so obviously they deserve to be displayed in style. Or if you know a budding baker, DIY a few for a fun, personalized set of bakeware. (via Brit + Co)
9. Staub Cherry Ceramic Bowls (from $13): Great for separating out ingredients, these bright red bowls are also the perfect size for ice cream, cereal or smoothies. But mostly ice cream.
10. Le Creuset Apple Tarte Tartin Pan ($165): Any baking enthusiast knows Le Creuset is famous for offering slow, steady heating, so tarts, pies, cobblers and quiches are evenly cooked.
11. DIY Painted Wooden Spoons: Careful, once you give your wooden spoons a color-blocked makeover, all your other utensils are going to be jealous. Pick up an inexpensive set of wooden spoons and paint them just in holiday colors to get the holiday spirit going strong. (via Brit + Co)
12. Personalized Cookie Cutters ($15): Forget plain old stars and circles — with this set of cookie cutters, you can really let your creativity loose. Start with one of the basic shapes and then switch things up by adding words, cut outs and stamps to really make your treats stand out.
13. Giant Gem Speaker ($40): The right tunes are essential to a good baking party, especially during the holidays. It just so happens that Brit + Co has a fantastic Holiday Baking Playlist that will have you dancing around the kitchen and spreading frosting like nobody’s business.
14. Maelle Rolling Pin ($18): Whether your holiday baking plans involve intricate pastries or making sugar cookies with the kids, every kitchen needs deserves one of these pretty, hand-painted rolling pins.
15. Milk Mixing Bowl Set ($65): Get your cameras ready because with mixing bowls this classy, you’re going to want to Instagram your entire baking adventure, from flour sifting to the grand finale.
16. St. Jude Spatula ($13): Not only is this spatula totally festive, it is also helping out for a good cause. For every St. Jude spatula purchased, 25% of the purchase price gets donated to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital which is a pretty cool way to celebrate the holiday spirit.
17. Polka Dot Recipe Box and Cards ($34): There is something deeply satisfying about following a recipe off a paper card. Maybe it reminds us of grandma’s baking. Or maybe it’s because spilled milk on a recipe is “charming” whereas spilled milk on an iPad doesn’t go over so well.
18. Painted Amaryllis Measuring Cups ($38): These measuring cups are so pretty, you won’t want to put them away when the baking is over. If you’re more about cuteness than accuracy, these little beauties would make great kitchen decor in between baking sessions.
19. Vivid Measuring Spoons ($19): There is a time for eyeing that “teaspoon of salt,” and there is a time to measure things out. You might be doing more of the latter with these colorful measuring spoons in the kitchen.
20. Pastry Blender ($15): Chop your way to pie crust perfection with this well-designed cutter that won’t give you wrist cramps while you work.
21. Candy Rock Cupcake Platter ($22): The kitchen sometimes get neglected in the holiday decorating madness, which is why these big gem cupcake platters are so perfect for the season.
22. Printable Favor Boxes: The best part about baking is giving away leftovers. Print off a bunch of these cute labels ahead of time and hand out boxes of treats to your guests as they head home. Yep, best hostess of the year goes to you. (via Almost Makes Perfect)
What essentials would you add to this list? Tell us what you’re looking forward to baking in the comments below!
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