
If you love your morning jolt as much as we do, you’re sure to enjoy these photos a latte. (Sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves.) Now that you’ve mastered hot chocolate and checked out the Barista Bot, we’ve got some inspiration for your next beverage challenge, latte art! Grab a biscotti and dig into some truly awesome and edible art.
1. Fish: Who wouldn’t love a cute little fish with their vanilla latte? Also, hello chocolate bubbles. (via Girls on Top )
2. 3D Cat: Making art that spans two cups, now that’s impressive. (via Spoon and Tamago)
3. Sweet Hearts: A few classic hearts never hurt anybody, especially with Valentine’s Day just around the corner. (via HD Wallpaper Collection)
4. Angry Birds: App addiction meet coffee addiction. Sip. Play. Enjoy. (via Cute Food for Kid)
5. The Little Mermaid: Hand-painted foam, it’s a whole new world. (via Mitsueki Loves)
6. City Skyline: Mike Breach makes a pretty mean skyline that spans not two, but three cups. (via Fubiz)
7. The Grinch Latte Art: Woke up on the wrong side of the bed? Indulge your inner grinch. (via Troskx)
8. Thumbs Up: Keep on keeping on. Everything’s going to a-okay. (via Visual News)
9. Grumpy Cat: This may be the most accurate representation of most of us in the morning… or at least during the work week. (via Acid Cow)
10. Monsters Inc.: Can we all just acknowledge that Mike’s eye is particularly impressive. (via LA Times)
11. Marilyn Monroe: Need a little glam in your day? Look no further than Marilyn. (via Orlando Sentinel)
12. Big Bear: This cuddly fellow comes complete with a video showing how he was made. Perfect for a rainy day and a cozy blanket. (via Saeco )
13. Happy Bunny: Ready to get one? Let’s bounce. (via Yinz Luo)
14. Goofy: Kazuki Yamamoto’s Goofy looks like something you’d find at a swanky Disney bistro in Epcot Paris. (via Create Laboratory)
17. Totoro: As if there weren’t enough reasons why we wanted to go to Tokyo, the Ghibli Museum goes and adds another two to the pile. Totoro + Latte = booking tickets immediately. (via Wilson Bilkovich)
18. Giraffe: Gravity defying latte art! We don’t know about you, but we’re rubberneckin’ for sure. (via Visual News)
19. Hugging Bears: Time for a bear hug! (via Me and My Specs)
20. Green Matcha Bear Latte: Matcha lattes make great mediums for latte art too. Just look at this sweet little bear and try to resist saying, “I luvre you too.” (via Little Fat Notebook)
21. Pop-Up Kitty: There is a kitten drowning in our drink, and it’s making us excited. What is wrong with us?! (via Carbonated TV)
22. Social Media Lattes: Social media obsessed much? (via Gadget Review)
23. Two Cats: Kohei Matsuno bridges the great divide… with foam cats! (via Oddity Central )
24. Sakura Kinomoto How-To: Sugi’s cute little Sakura comes with a pretty awesome how-to. All we can say is, good luck. (via Shizounyan)
View this post on InstagramLatte Art #stopmotion #animation #sketch #art #coffee #latte #barista #latteart
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25. Rachel Ryle’s Stop Motion Latte Art: Give this image a click to see some truly amazing stop-motion latte art. Sure it’s not something you can drink… but hey, we’re flexible. (via Rachel Ryle)
What’s the most impressive latte you’ve come across? Let us know where you found it 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