Perhaps you could chart the increases in regulatory compliance obligations with the dominance of large corporations. The overhead for startups and small business is a real barrier across all industries. There might be a case for excusing small business from all regulatory obligations until such point that their size indicates that they can afford to comply.
Interesting point. In my experience, many regulatory requirements are relaxed for small companies with less than 500 employees here in Europe. Whether we are talking about requirements for governance or audits. And if you are not listed and very small (typically below 10-20 employees) the requirements are even less stringent.
Which jurisdiction are you thinking about specifically? Maybe it is different in the US or other countries.
The UK. Simply opening a shop is a huge amount of paperwork and compliance with local council requirements. Add to that the tax admin and employment regulations which have to be satisfied BEFORE you can trade and I wonder why anyone would bother to attempt to start a business.
Interesting. I had a consulting company while I was in between jobs in 2019. Opening and closing it incl. VAT registration etc. was a piece of cake. But I agree that once you go into a business that has a physical shop it can become a major headache given UK planning laws which are just insane.
The world you describe no longer exists. My client needs a VAT registration. More than 6 weeks ago we did the registration. Still no sign of the VAT number needed. Their sales are over the threshold so they are liable to pay the VAT from the date of the registration, BUT they cannot charge their customers VAT because they don't yet have a number. The solution from HMRC is to increase prices by 20 % whilst they wait for the VAT registration to be processed. - I kid you not - "You cannot include VAT on your invoices until you get your VAT number but you can increase your prices to account for the VAT you’ll need to pay to HMRC." You, Joachim, and I, are sophisticated and "process savvy" individuals, most small business owners are not. Personally this suits me because I have many clients who just cannot understand what they need to do to comply with the regulations. They pay me to advise them on getting it right. They shouldn't need to.
And to add insult to injury, HMRC closed the telephone helpline on the 21st May and replaced it with a WebApp. My client applied for a VAT registration number on 5th April. The HMRC website app gives me the following information today - "We are currently processing requests received on 20 MARCH 2023.
If you sent your request after 20 MARCH 2023, please do not contact us as it has not been processed yet. " - You couldn't make this up....
Perhaps you could chart the increases in regulatory compliance obligations with the dominance of large corporations. The overhead for startups and small business is a real barrier across all industries. There might be a case for excusing small business from all regulatory obligations until such point that their size indicates that they can afford to comply.
Interesting point. In my experience, many regulatory requirements are relaxed for small companies with less than 500 employees here in Europe. Whether we are talking about requirements for governance or audits. And if you are not listed and very small (typically below 10-20 employees) the requirements are even less stringent.
Which jurisdiction are you thinking about specifically? Maybe it is different in the US or other countries.
The UK. Simply opening a shop is a huge amount of paperwork and compliance with local council requirements. Add to that the tax admin and employment regulations which have to be satisfied BEFORE you can trade and I wonder why anyone would bother to attempt to start a business.
Interesting. I had a consulting company while I was in between jobs in 2019. Opening and closing it incl. VAT registration etc. was a piece of cake. But I agree that once you go into a business that has a physical shop it can become a major headache given UK planning laws which are just insane.
The world you describe no longer exists. My client needs a VAT registration. More than 6 weeks ago we did the registration. Still no sign of the VAT number needed. Their sales are over the threshold so they are liable to pay the VAT from the date of the registration, BUT they cannot charge their customers VAT because they don't yet have a number. The solution from HMRC is to increase prices by 20 % whilst they wait for the VAT registration to be processed. - I kid you not - "You cannot include VAT on your invoices until you get your VAT number but you can increase your prices to account for the VAT you’ll need to pay to HMRC." You, Joachim, and I, are sophisticated and "process savvy" individuals, most small business owners are not. Personally this suits me because I have many clients who just cannot understand what they need to do to comply with the regulations. They pay me to advise them on getting it right. They shouldn't need to.
And to add insult to injury, HMRC closed the telephone helpline on the 21st May and replaced it with a WebApp. My client applied for a VAT registration number on 5th April. The HMRC website app gives me the following information today - "We are currently processing requests received on 20 MARCH 2023.
If you sent your request after 20 MARCH 2023, please do not contact us as it has not been processed yet. " - You couldn't make this up....
Wow. This is insane!