THE collection of PAYE in 1996 will cost small businesses more than £40 million, according to the director of the Small Firms' Association, Mr Brendan Butler, writes Padraig Yeates, Industry and Employment Correspondent.
He said a major part of the cost was the amount of red tape that employers have to deal with. There were 13 pieces of legislation with which employs had to comply when dealing with the Revenue Commissioners and Department of Social Welfare.
In total, employers were obliged to comply with 92 different prices of legislation involving seven State agencies.
"It is the SFA's view that in Ireland industry in general, and small firms in particular, are unnecessarily and severely handicapped by the amount of regulation imposed by excessively bureaucracy," Mr Butler said.
It was estimated that for a company employing fewer than 25 people the cost of collecting PAYE was 4 per cent of the tax liability involved.
By contrast, companies employing more than 400 people spent only 1 per cent of the equivalent of their PAVE liability on collection.