Cut Your ADHD Tax Bill

Running a business with ADHD often comes with hidden costs from delays, forgetfulness and missed admin. It's called the ADHD Tax and it can quietly drain hundreds each year.

These aren’t impulse purchases, they are costs that build up from executive function struggles: the delay between intention and action, time-blindness or stalled follow-through that turns small oversights into repeated charges.

More ADHD business owners are rejecting the idea that these costs are "part of the deal". They're building external structures so fewer things rely on memory, timing or constant effort.

What Is the ADHD Tax?

The ADHD Tax is the extra money, time and energy you spend because tasks slip, repeat or pile up. For example, late payment charges, duplicate purchases, last-minute bookings, etc. The services you meant to cancel six months ago.

These costs come from recognisable patterns:

• You plan to do something but, when the moment arrives, there's no trigger to remind you.

• Deadlines and renewals are easy to underestimate until they become urgent.

When systems get harder to manage, starting becomes harder too and, when these patterns repeat across invoicing, tax admin, software and suppliers, the ADHD Tax reduces both profit and confidence.

What can you do about it?

You don't need a complete overhaul. A small number of targeted changes can remove recurring pressure points.

Start with these three practical steps, for example:

Daily: Receipts

1. Take photos of today's receipts

2. Save to one folder called "Jan 2026 Receipts" and pin/favourite it for easy access.

3. Repeat daily

Many ADHD entrepreneurs find their biggest costs come from last-minute scrambles. Here's how one person solved it:

BEFORE: “My ADHD tax was the 'last-minute premium.' Need a cable for a presentation tomorrow? Buy it at the expensive airport shop. Forgot to renew my website domain? Pay the redemption fee. It was a constant cycle of panic spending.”

AFTER: “I created a 'Just-in-Case' list in my notes app. When I think 'I might need that someday' (cables, stamps, thank-you cards), I buy it then and stock a drawer. When I forget something, I check the drawer first. It’s saved me hundreds in urgent markups”

Source: X (Twitter Thread)

Follow-up crumbles between intention and action.

Weekly: Meeting follow-ups

1. Record Zoom call with Fathom

2. After the meeting, open Fathom summary

3. Copy action items to your task manager - one action per card or one card with one action list

4. Repeat after each meeting

Designing a process that bridges the intention-action gap immediately.

BEFORE: "The worst was client follow-up. I'd have a great call, promise to send a proposal, then... it would vanish from my mind for a week. By the time I followed up, the moment was gone. Lost revenue was my biggest ADHD tax."

AFTER: "I instituted a 'meeting minute' rule. The proposal template is open before the call. I take notes directly into it. The call ends, I add the fee and send it within 5 minutes. My closing rate soared because I'm capitalizing on the momentum they still feel."

Source: Reddit (r/smallbusiness)

Monthly: Subscriptions

1. Open your bank feed or PayPal account

2. Cancel one subscription you're not using

3. Repeat monthly

Subscriptions can quietly drain profit when avoided decisions stack up. This story shows how turning it into a monthly ritual made the task manageable—and satisfying.

BEFORE: "I was paying for three different cloud storage subscriptions (Dropbox, Google One, iCloud) for over two years. I kept meaning to compare them and cancel the two I didn't need but the decision fatigue and fear of losing files meant I just kept paying £25-30 a month for nothing."

AFTER: "I finally scheduled a 'Subscription Saturday.' I made it a game: opened all three, moved all files to one service and cancelled the others. It took 90 minutes and I'm now saving £360 a year. I felt so stupid for waiting but also empowered."

Source: Reddit (r/ADHD)

Build Systems That Work the way YOU work

Short-term fixes help. The real savings come when the system carries the load instead of your head, requiring less reliance on memory, timing and motivation.

External memory

Use planners, CRMs, recurring calendar entries and automated reminders to hold dates, amounts and steps. Anything kept in your head could be forgotten.

Low-friction processes

Use steps that are easy to start and hard to skip - short checklists and simple trigger rules (for example, when “x” happens, then do “y”):

• When a client pays, mark their invoice as complete

• When you send a proposal, set a 7-day follow-up reminder

• When you finish a project, send the invoice that same day

• When a new enquiry comes in, add them to your CRM immediately

• When you buy something for the business, photograph the receipt before you leave the shop

• When you book a meeting, block 15 minutes after it for notes

Keep each process short enough to complete in one sitting.

When these systems settle, work becomes more contained and predictable, you finish tasks more often and fewer things get left undone.

Design your business to assume lapses will happen and plan around them. When systems take on that load, fewer errors repeat, fewer costs stack up and more attention is available for work that moves your business forward.

The problem isn’t how your brain works, it’s that business systems expect all brains to work the same. Design yours to fit you and let that be your edge.