Compliance costs SMEs billions each year

5 March 2015

SMEs pay almost £10 billion in tax compliance costs each year, according to research by the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT).

The survey of 500 businesses reveals that the average SME spends £4,376 complying with business taxes each year. Collectively, the SME sector spends £9.9 billion annually on tax compliance.

Important findings:

SMEs spend up to 2 hours each week on tax issues
70% of SMEs say they spend too much time focusing on tax.

Small business owners say they would rather invest the money spent on tax compliance back into their businesses:

1 in 3 would spend more on sales and marketing
10% would use it to recruit more staff
10% would increase their R&D budget.

Mark Farrar, chief executive of the AAT, said:

“SMEs are the backbone of British businesses but some are being weakened by a hidden £10bn tax burden.

“It is a strong indicator of just how hard dealing with tax can be when 80% of our members, experts at navigating through the intricacies of tax compliance, state that the UK tax system is too complicated.”