
We don’t know about you guys, but we never leave the house without throwing our laptops or tablets in our bags. We are our most productive after treating ourselves to a latte, and we want to make the most of that productivity by writing up posts or responding to emails, so it’s useful to carry some sort of tech around at all times. But all that time spent bumping around in the bottom of our bags can do some serious damage to a device. To avoid key scratches and biro marks, you need a super cute cover that you can whip up in 10 minutes to protect any inner bag mishaps.
Materials:
— 1 piece of solid fabric (9 inch x 9.5 inch)
— 2 pieces of patterned fabric (9.5 inch x 9.5 inch)
— iron-on hemming tape (4 inch x 9.5 inch and 2 inch x 11.5 inch)
Tools:
— scissors
Instructions:
1. Place the solid fabric right side up and lay a 9.5-inch hemming strip along the top edge. Place one piece of your patterned fabric face down over the top of the hemming strip and line up the edges of the two pieces of fabric. Go over the fabrics and hemming tape with a warm iron.
2. Once the fabrics are fused, fold back the top fabric to the spot where the hemming tape has fused the two pieces together and press flat with the iron again.
3. Turn the fused pieces of fabric over. Create a hem at the top of the patterned fabric by folding the top edge down over another 9.5-inch hemming strip and going over the hem with the iron.
4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 at the other end of the plain fabric. You should be left with one long piece of fabric.
5. Fold your one long piece of fabric in half so the two opposite patterned fabric are together, right sides facing. Put the 11.5-inch strips of hemming tape between the fabric layers along the longest lengths.
6. Press the hemming tape with the iron until the fabric is fused. Turn the whole piece inside out and press flat.
7. Use your scissors to make holes for your snaps. Place the snap fasteners 2 inches, 4 inches and 6 inches in from one side of the cover along the hemmed edge and 1/2 inch from the top using the snap pliers.
This tutorial works for any device you want to protect, be it a laptop, tablet or phone. When measuring your fabric over your device, make sure you give yourself enough wiggle room for hemming and fabric overlap.
Rather than using a sewing machine, you’ll bind everything together with hemming tape.
Fabric combos are limitless with this tutorial. So head to your nearest fabric store and start putting things together.
If you want to make sure your snaps are evenly placed, it’s a good idea to get out the ruler and do some math to ensure perfection.
And really, isn’t opening and closing snaps as satisfying as popping bubble wrap?
And just like that, your iPad is protected and infinitely more stylish.
And to think you never even had to thread a single bobbin to make it happen.
Have you made a no-sew iPad cover before? Share your pics 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