>When I was an employer as a small business, my heart would skip a beat every time I received a letter from the many local, state or federal agencies that would chime in on some requirement as an employer. For someone that wants to do it right, it's very hard to know exactly what "right" is without paying an arm and leg for professional services.

Hmm. Wondering what country you are in. I'm in the USA and for "reasons.." I ended up performing all the admin tasks relating to employees (payroll, witholding, IRA, unemployment, insurance) over the past 6 months. I had to learn everything from scratch. Yes it was quite a bit of work, but I don't have the same experience you report at all. I haven't received any letters other than helpful reminders of things I need to file. Yes we have an accounting firm who have over the years educated us on what we need to do, forms to file, and so on. But nothing much changes year-to-year so once you're running the cognitive load is not too bad. None of it scares me at all. Certainly nothing in comparison to running the actual business, where you have customers who don't pay you; risk of being sued; requirement to use Node.JS -- you know -- real scary stuff ;)