UK businesses more concerned with compliance than tax

17th February 2012

Twice as many UK executives have said they are more concerned with compliance costs for keeping pace with increased regulation than they are with taxation, new research has found.

More than half (56%) of senior managers consider “red-tape” to be one the biggest barriers to growth, a figure which has increased from 43% in Q1 2011. Conversely, less than a third (27%) citied tax as a major concern compared to 38% in the same period.

Kerrie Machin, Head of Sales at Citation plc commented: “We know that red tape is as much of a burden today for business owners than it has ever been. With almost a quarter of a million employment tribunals each year, company directors are juggling their time between running their businesses at the same time as trying to remain compliant, often at the detriment of both.

In my experience, companies that use Citation find that once they implement our simple and easy to use systems and procedures, they can get on with running their business and sleep soundly at night knowing their business is guaranteed to be compliant".

Source: Research carried out by Royal Bank of Scotland Corporate & Institutional Banking.