Can you believe that January is over?! How are those resolutions coming along? Still bummed about the 49ers not making it to the big game? Well, whatever your current state of being is we know one thing for sure: there is something weird, beautiful, or innovative on this list just for you. Enjoy!
1. A Typographic Treatment of Ira Glass’ Iconic Quote: We’re big fans of Ira Glass’ words on Storytelling, and we’ve actually seen a video treatment of his iconic discussion of “the gap” when it comes to creative work before. This is another beautiful piece of animated typography, and reminds us to keep going even when the creative going gets tough.
2. Pencil Sharpenings and Popcorn: Who knew how many forms a piece of popcorn or a pencil sharpening could take on? Artist Victor Nunes certainly knew, and takes on rubber bands, walnuts, pecans, cashews, and all sorts of everyday objects in this playful drawing series.
3. Say Cheese Instant Slicer ($10): It’s a cheese slicer that looks like an old school Polaroid camera. What more is there to know?
4. Family Takes the Same Photo for 20 Years: Now this is a project that takes some serious planning and commitment, and we’re super into it. Maybe the brand new babies of Brit + Co. should tell their parents about this.
5. Egg Rugg ($60): When it comes to egg love, we don’t yolk around. PS Your dad called, he wants his pun back ;)
6. emPOWERED Charging Purse ($149): Like Everpurse, this brand new charging purse is an on-the-go power booster for your mobile devices. The internal charging cable connects to both types of iPhone charger as well as micro USB. It’s big enough to be your go-to bag and includes a removable strap. Love it.
7. Thoughts about Making Things and the Internet: Hear, hear Adam Kurtz!
8. Dressing Up Like Beyonce: This amazing set of photos is from a story a journalist at Elle did about dressing up like Beyonce for one day. Definitely worth a read.
9. Bra Clasp Unhooks for True Love: In the land of weird, we’ve got a bra that unhooks based on a built-in heart rate monitor and magical algorithms that detect true love. So strange.
10. Shop Dandy Pillows ($28): We featured one of these pillows the other day, but couldn’t resist sharing the whole collection. #yolo
Wake Up Vibe
We’ll go ahead and file this under our often-talked-about future Wellness category. It’s an alarm clock… that you keep in your pants. Yep. We’ll leave it at that.
12. Nesting Twitter: You thought you were into Twitter? Not even close. This Kickstarter project wants to tell the story of Twitter by creating a set of nesting dolls that illustrates Twitter’s growth by nesting its founders inside one another. Just chew on that concept for a little while and call us in the morning. Err… tweet us in the morning ;)
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:
You X Ventures for Unsplash
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.
Kobu Agency for Unsplash
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