Comments on: Work at Home Moms Talk Radio – #186

By: Tishia

Tishia — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 03:31:40 +0000

I really enjoyed this week’s show, well I enjoy every week but this week had some information that I had no clue about! It was great!

By: Kristine McKinley

Kristine McKinley — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:03:21 +0000

Nell – You don’t get the same tax benefits from hiring your spouse as you do your children. You have to pay Social Security and Medicare tax on your spouse, unfortunately. And you’re both in the same tax bracket, so you don’t benefit from shifting income from a higher tax bracket to a lower tax bracket. There are some benefits to hiring your spouse though. One of the biggest is that you can setup a Medical Reimbursement Account and the medical expenses become a business deduction. This is a good deal for families that don’t have good health insurance (because neither spouse has a good employer health plan, or because both spouses are self employed). But that’s a whole other topic!

By: Nell

Nell — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:26:22 +0000

Oh, and I wanted to say thank you for having MM’er, Kristine, on the show this week. My sons are much too young to pay for services in my business, but when they are old enough I will be doing that! She got me all excited about that possibility. ;)

I don’t know if she is checking the blog here again, but I’m curious if you can pay your spouse and get the same tax benefits as paying a child?

By: Nell

Nell — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:24:32 +0000

I really enjoyed hearing from Chaz from LegalZoom. I’ve been going back and forth on LLC and using LegalZoom. Listening to him really drove home that I need to protect my business and my family legally. I can’t push that off any longer. So, off to check out some more info from LegalZoom. Thanks for the interview Kelly and Chaz.

By: Kristine McKinley

Kristine McKinley — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 14:24:28 +0000

Thanks for having me on the show, Kelly. It was fun!

I thought of another tip that might be helpful to WAHMs who are considering hiring their children in thier business.

I mentioned on the show that you are required to file a W-2 and other payroll tax reports for your children who work in your business.

A very easy way to file your W-2 and payroll tax reports (other than hiring an accountant/tax professional to do it for you) is to use http://www.filetaxes.com.

At this website you can file W-2s, 1099s, 941s and more for about $4-5 per form. If you only have one or two employees, this is a great tool to use, and it’s very inexpensive.

Hope this helps!