IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v21y2003i4p479-492.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors Affecting the Costs of UK VAT Compliance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Author

Listed:
  • Ann Hansford

    (School of Accounting and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QY, England)

  • John Hasseldine
  • Carole Howorth

Abstract

As firms grow, taxation and, in particular, value added tax (VAT), is one of the first areas in which they must deal with government regulations. It has been argued in the United Kingdom that regulatory requirements are burdensome and can even be a constraint on the development and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The authors focus on SMEs and link the literature on VAT regulations and compliance costs to wider issues relating to SMEs. The costs of complying with VAT regulations are separated into core costs and total costs. Core costs are the mandatory costs that SMEs have to incur in order to comply with the VAT legislation and regulations. Total costs include VAT planning and one-off costs. For SMEs core costs represent a larger proportion of total compliance costs than is the case for larger businesses. A reduction in core costs would have a significant impact on the total VAT-compliance costs for SMEs. Factors expected to be associated with higher compliance costs are identified and tested in a multivariate framework. Empirical data were obtained from a survey of 4796 firms resulting in a final sample of 1085 firms and a response rate of 25.1%. Higher compliance costs (in absolute terms) are associated, inter alia, with increased turnover, newly registered firms, and increased complexity. Firms with higher compliance costs also perceived high psychological costs of VAT compliance. Compliance costs were also higher for individuals who did not have English as their first language, and individuals with special needs. The important implications of the findings for policy are highlighted.

Suggested Citation

  • Ann Hansford & John Hasseldine & Carole Howorth, 2003. "Factors Affecting the Costs of UK VAT Compliance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 21(4), pages 479-492, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:21:y:2003:i:4:p:479-492
    DOI: 10.1068/c0319
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c0319
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/c0319?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Baldwin, Robert & Cave, Martin & Lodge, Martin, 2011. "Understanding Regulation: Theory, Strategy, and Practice," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, edition 2, number 9780199576098, Decembrie.
    2. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas, 1995. "Should Small Businesses Be Tax Favored?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 48(3), pages 387-395, September.
    3. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas, 1995. "Should Small Businesses Be Tax Favored?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 48(3), pages 387-95, September.
    4. Jay B. Barney, 1986. "Strategic Factor Markets: Expectations, Luck, and Business Strategy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(10), pages 1231-1241, October.
    5. David J. Teece & Gary Pisano & Amy Shuen, 1997. "Dynamic capabilities and strategic management," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(7), pages 509-533, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Azmi, Anna & Sapiei, Noor Sharoja & Mustapha, Mohd Zulkhairi & Abdullah, Mazni, 2016. "SMEs' tax compliance costs and IT adoption: the case of a value-added tax," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 1-13.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. William Gale & Samuel Brown, 2013. "Small Business, Innovation, and Tax Policy: A Review," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(4), pages 871-892, December.
    2. Kim, Jongwook & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2008. "A Strategic Theory of the Firm as a Nexus of Incomplete Contracts: A Property Rights Approach," Working Papers 08-0108, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    3. Claudio Vitari & Elisabetta Raguseo, 2016. "Big data value and financial performance: an empirical investigation [Digital data, dynamic capability and financial performance: an empirical investigation in the era of Big Data]," Post-Print halshs-01923271, HAL.
    4. David G. Sirmon & Michael A. Hitt, 2003. "Managing Resources: Linking Unique Resources, Management, and Wealth Creation in Family Firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 27(4), pages 339-358, October.
    5. Sanchez, Ron, 2004. "Understanding competence-based management: Identifying and managing five modes of competence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(5), pages 518-532, May.
    6. Iman Seoudi & Matthias Huehn & Bo Carlsson, 2008. "Penrose Revisited: A Re-Appraisal of the Resource Perspective," Working Papers 14, The German University in Cairo, Faculty of Management Technology.
    7. Wang, Chun-Ju & Wu, Lei-Yu, 2012. "Team member commitments and start-up competitiveness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(5), pages 708-715.
    8. Judith Cavazos-Arroyo & Rogelio Puente-Diaz, 2019. "The Influence of Marketing Capability in Mexican Social Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-15, August.
    9. Rui Baptista & Murat Karaöz & João Correia Leitão, 2020. "Diversification by young, small firms: the role of pre-entry resources and entry mistakes," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 103-122, June.
    10. Richard J. Arend & Moren Lévesque, 2010. "Is the Resource-Based View a Practical Organizational Theory?," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 913-930, August.
    11. Plesko, George A., 1995. "'Gimme Shelter?' Closely Held Corporations Since Tax Reform," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 48(3), pages 409-416, September.
    12. Phebo D. Wibbens, 2023. "A formal framework for the RBV: Resource dynamics as a Markov process," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(6), pages 1562-1586, June.
    13. Peter Wirtz, 2006. "Compétences, conflits et création de valeur:vers une approche intégrée de la gouvernance," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 9(2), pages 187-201, June.
    14. Jensen, Peter D. Ørberg, 2012. "A passage to India: A dual case study of activities, processes and resources in offshore outsourcing of advanced services," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 311-326.
    15. Mehmet Ali Köseoglu & John A. Parnell & Melissa Yan Yee Yick, 2021. "Identifying influential studies and maturity level in intellectual structure of fields: evidence from strategic management," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(2), pages 1271-1309, February.
    16. Clint Chadwick & Adina Dabu, 2009. "Human Resources, Human Resource Management, and the Competitive Advantage of Firms: Toward a More Comprehensive Model of Causal Linkages," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 253-272, February.
    17. Lippert, Inge, 2008. "Perspektivenverschiebungen in der Corporate Governance: Neuere Ansätze und Studien der Corporate-Governance-Forschung," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Knowledge, Production Systems and Work SP III 2008-302, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    18. Richard Arend, 2013. "Ethics-focused dynamic capabilities: a small business perspective," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 1-24, June.
    19. Richard J. Arend, 2020. "Getting Nothing from Something: Unfulfilled Promises of Current Dominant Approaches to Entrepreneurial Decision-Making," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-22, August.
    20. Ayuso, Silvia & Rodriguez, Miguel A. & Ricart, Joan E., 2006. "Using stakeholder dialogue as a source for new ideas. A dynamic capability underlying sustainable innovation," IESE Research Papers D/633, IESE Business School.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:21:y:2003:i:4:p:479-492. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.