A Reddit user shared his story of wanting his wife to give up two months of her “fun money” to pay off tax debt.
Monthly Allowance
The original poster (OP) explained that he does the finances for the house. He said they each get an “allowance” every time he is paid since he makes twice as much money as she does. They split the allowance total in half so they each get some semi-monthly. Her income goes towards the bills.
They recently found out that they owe a few thousand dollars in taxes. He got into an argument with her that if they just didn't give themselves an allowance for two months and used some of their savings, they would be able to pay off that debt. She was strongly against losing her fun money, but OP told her that it was just for a couple of months and she said she didn't care.
OP said that he would be willing to do it completely with his half of the money. She said no she needed at least a little so they compromised and she gets around 1/4 of her usual amount to put towards makeup and skincare. OP said he felt very annoyed that she wasn't willing to sacrifice two months to pay off their tax debt.
He said it's not like it's some stupid debt he racked up on his own and is expecting her to contribute to. It's both of their debts.
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The Masses Weigh In
The Reddit community wasn't so sympathetic to OP's situation.
One user said, “Why not leave her enough fun money to cover her skincare and take a little longer to pay it off? Tbh, I’m kind of uncomfortable with needed personal care stuff coming out of “fun money”. My husband and I both get our personal care products as part of the household budget, and fun money is for unnecessary things.”
Another user chimed in, “Firstly, if you are the financially savvy one, you should've either planned better for your tax bill or hired an accountant so you knew how much you should put aside. Secondly, you can take more time to pay it off, or save less/invest less and take some, but not all of the fun budget instead of all. Thirdly, as mentioned a lot, skincare and makup shouldn't be fun money, that's a necessary spend.”
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Another user tried to put things in perspective:
“Wife doesn’t pay all the bills. They pool all their money, pay their expenses and they both have the exact same amount of fun money. What OP is suggesting is paying the taxes with THEIR fun money for two months. So if the both get $200 the total tax bill $1,600. The goal is to have it paid before 4/15 otherwise fees and penalties start accruing. If they stretch it out to three months then they pay the original tax debt plus a month of penalties which can be 2% compounded daily which changes every day. So OP wanting to pay it off before the deadline is the best thing to do to avoid paying more.
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The other option is to make sure both of them check their tax withholding (w-4) and make sure they have it correct. Sometimes people follow the government guidelines and claim the number the worksheet tells them. This is never to your benefit in the long term. This is designed to give you more money in your paycheck but when tax time comes you’ll owe much more than before.
For example the IRS suggests you always claim yourself, 65+, blind, all children, any qualified adults who may not be related but live in your home that you care for. So assuming your 25, married with 1 child the IRS expects each you to claim at least 1 then the child. So who ever makes the most would claim 2 and the other just one. While this is great in theory you pay less in taxes.
To avoid paying at the end of the year never claim yourself only the child on one and nothing on the other. If you have no children claim “ZERO”. This still won’t guarantee you won’t pay at the end but you’ll pay less. I have no children claim zero and still had to pay this year. I adjusted my withholding to pull a little extra out each paycheck so I don’t have to pay next year.”
Should OP's wife get to keep her allowance? Should she sacrifice for two months to help pay off the tax debt? How would you have reacted in this situation?
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