There have certainly been many times during my career when I have had people ask me about the “nanny tax.” Those people (not surprisingly) usually have nannies, and are aware that there are some tax responsibilities that come along with employing that person.

There have certainly been at least as many times in my career, though, when someone should have been asking me about this “nanny tax,” and were not. Those people (not surprisingly) did not have nannies, and were not aware of the responsibilities that come with having a household employee. Many of them, in fact, were not even aware that they technically had a household employee.

Although nannies are the occupation that have somehow been chosen to name and symbolize this issue, it essentially applies to anyone who works in your home to whom you pay more than $2,000 a year. Cooks, housekeepers, medical care givers, gardeners, and heck, even babysitters who don’t get the nanny tag could all fit under this umbrella.

So if you are reading this and realizing that there may be some legal and tax issues that you have not been properly addressing, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we can help make sure that you are meeting your obligations.

I wanted to spend a little more time here keying on the medical worker aspect of this, however. Many people who receive in-home care arrange it through a third party, meaning the caregiver is receiving their wages through an employer who is not the homeowner of where they work. If that is the case, there is no need to worry, for they already have an employer taking care of obligations on that end.

When a homeowner personally brings in someone, however, then they become the employer and as such have the tax obligations of any employer. Some believe that with the current, possibly in-flux state of medical insurance in our country that this could be a situation that grows in the coming years.

This may actually be the type of situation where it is most critical that one is aware of the “nanny tax,” even though these clearly are not nannies, and of other rules that could help ease one’s tax burden.

For example, a worker could qualify for a companionship exemption based on the type of care they provide, leading to possible exclusions from minimum wage and overtime rules. There are also sleep time exemptions for those who work certain extended hours if adequate sleeping facilities are provided, continuous sleep for at least five hours is possible, and the employee agrees to it in writing, so that those hours don’t count as working hours.

I realize that all of this may seem very vague, and that is by design.  I do not feel that this is the space to give any sort of specific instructions, recommendations, or advice, however, for so much of that is dependent on one’s personal situation. Instead, I just wanted to make you aware that such rules do exist and it is better to take care of them now than waiting for them to catch up with you.

And of course, as always, we would love the chance to help you figure out just how it applies in your personal situation. 

Last week I urged my business owner clients to ask themselves what they wanted to do next in their business and to think about the steps that could help move them toward that goal. It must have been contemplating that issue so much that got me to thinking about celebrity culture in a new way.

(Really, hold on, I think it will eventually make sense.)

It seems to me that almost everyone has at least one celebrity with whom they feel some connection. It also seems that those who make the deepest impression on the most lives are the ones who prove to have lasting careers that span time and, possibly more importantly, genre.

There is a reason that one-hit wonders and other flashes in the pan tend to become punchlines. They may inspire passion and quickly build huge fan bases, but if they never figure out what’s next, then those fans move on. I imagine that the reason many then become joke fodder is because we feel a bit taken in by something catchy or interesting, but then discover a lack of substance behind it.

I think this ties into the culture that grows around celebrity deaths. Of course, there is the curiosity factor just because these are people that we know about, but some of those deaths have impacts that many feel on a deeper level. I imagine we have all felt this at some time, and at times it may have even been unexpected.

So this past week I started to think of how all this was connected, and came to think that those whose deaths have the greatest effect are those we still wanted more from. We may not have known their answer to what was next for them, but we wanted to find out.

This is why there seems such power, and a bit of mystery, to the “27 Club,” a group of musicians who died at that age. It is a rather talented group that includes Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse. They left behind a great body of work, but one can’t help but imagine what else they could have done.

Although this may seem a bit morbid, my thoughts did not end there, and I even thought one could find some inspiration in it.

For instead of thinking of what was taken away, spend some time thinking about performers who have inspired you in your life. Think of the ways that they had different works that touched you at different points, or maybe how the same work had enough depth to affect you in different ways at different points in your life. No matter who they are, or what they did, I would wager that you can see both evolution and depth in their work.

In there may be a little light into the key to success I was trying to hit upon last week. If these inspirations only ever did one thing, their appeal would have withered. Instead they did what they did well, but also built upon what they had done before. It would have been easy to sit on their laurels, but they kept moving and had answers to what they wanted to do next.

Here is to hoping you also have some of those answers. 

Throughout the tax season, I felt like I spent more time in this space talking to my individual clients than businesses. This makes sense, for even business owners are filing personal tax returns, making it a topic with which everyone has some familiarity.

A couple of weeks ago, though, I got to mention National Small Business Week and express how much we love working with businesses, and the new worlds to which it can expose us. I want to continue to take the time to address businesses more now, and to do it with one question:

What do you want to do next?

I have mentioned similar ideas when it came to personal finances, urging people to take tax season as a time that can indicate where you need to make some improvements in your finances, record keeping, overall organization, or anywhere else. Just it is a time where everyone feels some stresses, so it is a good time to figure out how to combat that stress. And although I do think it is important for us to spend time thinking about ways that we can improve our personal lives – in every area – but it may be even more important for businesses to take this type of self-review.

After all, the health and well-being of a business plays a giant role in the health and well-being of its business owner. This connection happens whether your business is a side hobby or if you’re at the head of a multi-million dollar corporation. Many of those corporations rose from smaller entities, and they got there by knowing the answer to:

What do you want to do next?

I wrote recently about the passion that I love seeing in business owners, but running a business is also work, and like any type of work, there are times when it feels heavy, too much to handle, and we wonder if it is all worth it.

First, chances are that it is worth it, for you would not have started the journey if it was not. So when those heavy times come, figure out what is triggering those feelings: are you not profitable enough, do you need to hire more employees, do you need to fire old employees, do you need to contract outside help for some areas of your business? Find where the issues are, and envision how they can be fixed. In there is probably the answer to:

What do you want to do next?

I understand that not every owner has the means to immediately solve those problems. Finances do not always allow it, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid the answer. If you are not yet where you want to be, that does not mean that you shouldn’t envision where you want to be. In fact, because it’s not happening yet is why it answers the question:

What do you want to do next?

To achieve goals, one needs forward motion. There are rarely magic buttons that provide answers that get us to where we want to be in life or in business. The journey can be long, and it can be arduous. Do not let that frighten you away, for most of the things worth doing in life, the things that we look back on most fondly, are the ones that were difficult to achieve. They’re never achieved through giant leaps, but one step at time. So …

What do you want to do next?

And as always let us know if there is any way we can help you get there.

It is National Small Business Week, and coming from a small business myself, I guess it is not that wild that I am mentioning it. The fact that you are reading this, though, shows that you enjoy engaging with small businesses. With both of these things being true, if there is some small business purchase you have been thinking about, it could be time to go through with it, you know, to help them celebrate.

Or maybe it is time to start thinking of running a small business of your own.

One of the best parts of being in this business is meeting people who embark on that quest. We get to see the passion they have that drives them to bring it to the public and share it with others. I recommend working with passionate people as much as you can, for even if your passions do not lie in the same area, it is infectious. This leads to us doing all we can to help these businesses succeed and at the risk of a little conceit, we believe that assistance helps lead to success.

For you see, those passions I mentioned do lie in different areas. Businesses are rarely started because someone is excited at the idea of tracking finances, keeping clean books and going over profit and loss statements. I say rarely because some of them are, and that is done by those of us who love to specialize in that area.

Many others, though, do not realize the importance of such things when they go into business. Without keeping good track of your numbers, purchases, sales, and balances, though, you will not thrive as much as you could. Even if business is booming, opportunities to be more financially efficient will be missed because finding them is not a priority. If business is not booming, not paying attention to such things could lead to the business’s demise.

I am sure some of you reading this may not have even thought of the services we perform for other businesses. As you have learned over the past few months in this space, a lot of our business involves filing taxes, and we are very thankful for those clients who only use us for those services. But if you ever find yourself branching into new areas – or looking for new help in some old areas – know that we would love to help you if we can, or point you in the right direction if we cannot.

And being aware of what one cannot do in business is important. You should concentrate on what you are best at and what brings you the most fulfillment. This is bound to not be every task that needs doing in a business, though. You should then let the expertise of others work for you, which then lets the expertise of others free you up to do more of what you want to be doing in the first place. It is that passion that makes small businesses worth celebrating, why we are proud to be one, and are fulfilled by helping others.