Some employers offer a regular, fixed amount of money, or stipend, to their employees to help cover the cost of health insurance. While this option is easy from a time and administration perspective, the value of these dollars will be greatly diminished because they are considered taxable income. Furthermore, simply writing off the stipend as a business expense will have payroll as well as income tax implications. Health stipends aren’t subject to compliance issues that group plans have, and they can be really easy to administer through payroll. But they aren’t tax advantaged like an HRA. Not only are small businesses required to pay payroll tax on the reimbursements, employees must claim the stipend as income and there isn’t exactly any accountability for whether or not the money is even used for health insurance.