When saving money isn’t worth it.

Sometimes saving money isn’t worth the time and headache.

Three months ago I arranged the Tayler Corporation finances so that it could start running a payroll. The plan was to give Howard a paycheck so that we could take advantage of a tax break that would allow us to have our medical expenses tax free. It did seem to save us some money, but it tripled the amount of time it took for me to create each paycheck. Then the quarterly reports and payments came due. I couldn’t make the amounts in quickbooks match with the amounts on the automatic quarterly reports. After two days of hair tearing stress and frustrating phone calls I determined that I’d done 3 months worth of paychecks wrong and I had no idea how to do them right while still using the tax break. I then pondered tax time ahead and realized that I would have year-end reports to try to figure out as well. Also my accountant hadn’t really heard of this particular tax break and so he would have to learn how to deal with it too.

If there is one thing I hate, it is feeling like my accounts are tangled up. I hate living in fear that the IRS will descend upon me and tell me that I’ve been doing something illegal by accident. I am sure that this particular tax break can be done legally otherwise it would not be offered by NASE, but I have decided that it isn’t worth my time, stress, fear right now to try to figure it out. If the paychecks were larger the savings would probably be greater. Perhaps in another year or two when I can afford to pay a professional to do payroll I’ll try it again.

I re-did the paychecks removing the tax-free medical stuff and realized that I’m very happy to pay the government a little bit more in order to not have to deal with it. I suppose some would say that in doing this I’ve allowed the government to “win”. Maybe so, but right now all my accounts are in neat order. I know where all the money is and all the columns match up. And I can go do SOMETHING ELSE.