Hey Product Hunt! I'm Wayne, the maker of Tracta. The problem: If you're self-employed and hire your kids, you can save $3,000-$8,000/year in taxes through a perfectly legal IRS provision — children under 18 employed by a parent's sole proprietorship or single-member LLC are exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes (15.3% savings), and the wages are a business deduction. But actually doing it right is a nightmare. You need compliant payroll records, proper timesheets, W-2s, and documentation that can survive an audit. Most payroll software doesn't handle FICA/FUTA family exemptions at all, and hiring an accountant to manage it costs more than the savings. What Tracta does: It's payroll software built specifically for this use case. - Add your business and your child in under a minute - We suggest age-appropriate job duties and market-rate pay that meet IRS reasonable compensation requirements - Time entries are prefilled based on age, job duties, and state labor laws - Run payroll with the family employment exemption applied automatically - Tax Vault keeps all your pay stubs, W-2s, and records organized and audit-ready - Smart reminders for quarterly filings and deadlines so nothing slips through the cracks - Built-in Roth IRA tracking to put your child's earnings toward tax-free retirement savings How it started: I built this after going through the process myself. I spent hours on spreadsheets and IRS publications trying to get the payroll right for my own kids. I figured if it was this painful for someone who writes software for a living, most parents were either doing it wrong or not doing it at all — leaving thousands on the table. Tracta is $7/month. I'd love your feedback — especially from anyone who's tried to set this up manually before. Happy to answer any questions about family employment tax strategy in the comments.

Tracta

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Start Early. Build Wealth.