Abstract
Today, compliance costs of businesses are part of the political agendas of many countries from the EU, the OECD and even developing and transition countries. This has not always been the case. It was good old Adam Smith who said in 1778 “Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to take out and to keep out of the pockets of the people as little as possible over and above what it brings to the public treasury of the state.”
From that time on, it took more than 200 years before a systematic monitoring of the development of only a part of the compliance costs, e.g. the compliance costs of information obligations started at the end of the 20th century. This chapter highlights the major phases between the first recognition by professionals until the establishment of monitoring systems. The more recent developments from 2000 onwards will not be illustrated in this but in the following chapters.
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- 1.
Allers 1994, p. 8. Allers gives one exception; McCulloch (1975) first published in 1845, pages 38 and 399 who emphasizes that the last three theories mentioned are actually the most important. He even provides some estimates of administrative costs as examples of taxes that offend against these rules, In France, for example, 120 million livres were spent to acquire 30 million (net) in taxation.
- 2.
To obtain a complete review of a great many Dutch, German and English studies in this field, refer M. Allers, Administration and Compliance Costs of Taxation and Public Transfer in the Netherlands. Groningen University 1994, Appendix B, Review of earlier studies on operating costs.
- 3.
For more references on this topic, see European Communities (1993). Bulletin of the European Union, EC 10-1993, page 128, European Commission (1994/1996) Integrated Program in favour of SMEs and the Craft Sector 1994, Com (94) 207 final, and Com (96) 329 final., and The European Parliament (1997) Report on Strengthening the Business impact Assessment System, no. A4-0413/96 of 24th April 1997.
- 4.
Information taken from country reports, reports of fact-finding missions which Prof. I Th. Snellen has compiled on the instructions of the Committee for administrative burdens. These refer to the United States. The United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, July–September 1999
- 5.
Lower House, Towards fewer administrative burdens, 27 June 1995; Lower House, Progress in the reduction of administrative burdens for businesses, 14 July 1997; Lower House, Present state of affairs of the project to reduce administrative burdens, 14 April 1998; Lower House, Report of general discussions on the lightening of administrative burdens for businesses, 26 August 1998.
References
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Nijsen, A. (2009). Historical Review: 1750–2000. In: Nijsen, A., Hudson, J., Müller, C., Paridon, K., Thurik, R. (eds) Business Regulation and Public Policy. International Studies in Entrepreneurship, vol 20. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-77678-1_1
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