The Conversation
You don’t have to live in a coastal city to enjoy the deliciousness of a shrimp boil. The corn, potatoes, sausage, and shrimp are all things that you can easily get to create your own rustic spread. If you think that a shrimp boil only consists of, well, boiling shrimp, you’re sadly mistaken. It could be transformed into a saucy pasta dish, a grilled foil packet, or even a sheet pan dinner, for starters. To learn about how to throw a shrimp boil at home (indoors or outdoors!), keep on reading.
Shrimp Boil Pasta
Comfort food doesn’t get more comforting than this. Between the curly tripoline pasta, rich cream sauce, and tender andouille sausage, this shrimp boil-inspired pasta dish will put you in an instant food coma. (via Delish)
Garlic Loaded Southern Style Shrimp Boil
There’s no shortage of flavor in this Southern-style boil. You’ll use two whole heads (not cloves) of garlic and a homemade seasoning that’ll knock your socks off. (via Little Spice Jar)
Grilled Shrimp Boil Packets
Minimal cleanup is essential when you’re hosting friends for dinner. Save yourself precious time by preparing these mess-free foil packets, and you’ll have plenty of time to knock back a cold one while they cook. (via Cooking Classy)
Low Country Shrimp Boil in a Pressure Cooker
Put that new slow cooker or Instant Pot to work! This shrimp boil only takes 10 minutes to fully cook, so you can dip into a vat of melted lemon butter in no time. (via Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom)
One Pot Creole Shrimp Boil
Instead of using the standard Old Bay for flavor, this one uses a full half cup of Creole seasoning to light up your taste buds.(via Aberdeen’s Kitchen)
Foil Sheet Pan Oven Shrimp Boil
Instead of boiling all of your ingredients, try roasting them on a foil-lined sheet pan to intensify their flavor. (via Kirbie’s Cravings)
Shrimp Beer Boil
If you’re going to boil your shrimp, potatoes, and corn, you might as well do it in beer — amirite? Go for your favorite pale ale for the best results. (via Jennifer Meyering)
Shrimp Boil Kabobs
Take your shrimp boil to the grill by threading each item onto a metal skewer. This way, you get a smokey char AND the classic flavor you love. (via Damn Delicious)
Shrimp Boil Soup
Whether you make this soup from scratch or repurpose your shrimp boil leftovers, serve with a crusty baguette to sop up the spicy broth and garnish with a sprinkle of fresh chives. (via Iowa Girl Eats)
Slow Cooker Low Country Boil
Instead of heating up your kitchen in the dead of summer, pile everything in your slow cooker and let it do the work while you relax. (via Everyday Good Thinking)
More From Food Adulting
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