You rarely see child slavery presented in a positive light anymore, but let us take a moment to talk about pushing your own children into servitude so you can teach them the reality of adult life.
True, you’ll be paying them, which means that it’s technically not slavery, but your kids will probably think it is. I mean, they’ll have to work with their parents, yuck.
If you’re going to exploit them, keep these guidelines in mind:
- Make sure that it’s necessary to your business. Filing, packing, and mailing are all tasks that are reasonable, but playing video games isn’t. Write a job description ahead of time.
- Pay them: You should pay them at least hourly minimum wages where you live. As long as they make less than the standard deduction (which is $6,350 in 2017) over the course of a year, their income can be tax-free to them.
- Treat them like a normal employee. That is, expect regular hours, record those hours, and require appropriate dress. Also, pay them using your normal payroll method and give them a W-2 at year end.
- Don’t beat them. Unless that’s in the job description, or something that normally happens to your employees. Of course, this one is just written so that my boss has something to cross out later.
- If you’re running a C-corp or S-corp, you might not get all of the tax benefits as if you are a sole proprietor. Remember to mention it to your own accountant before they start, to get the complete story.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, you can stare at your kid across the dinner table and think to yourself: “They’re old enough to start working, right?” If you have any questions, or if you are being pushed into involuntary servitude by your parents and have questions from that end, let us know.
Tags: one good joke