Administrative burdens are
the costs that the corporate sector must make in order to comply with
information obligations as the result of Government-imposed legislation and
regulations. An inventory was made of the total extent of these burdens for the
whole Cabinet as of 31 December 2002. This inventory (‘zero
measurement’) forms the starting point for this operation.
Amount red tape per Ministry
The graph below
provides an overview. The estimated total of all administrative burdens as of
31 December 2002 comes to 16.3 billion euros. This is the equivalent of 3.6% of
Dutch GDP.
The zero measurement makes
it possible to (1) obtain detailed insight into the administrative burdens per
law, (2) obtain insight into the points of departure and the basic data by
means of which (the effects of) reduction proposals can be adequately
quantified, (3) easily calculate alternatives for intended legislation and
regulations and the effects of these proposals and (4) make swift, reliable reports
(at law level) on the development of administrative burdens during a given
Cabinet term of office. The extent of the administrative burdens per Ministry
varies greatly. The administrative burdens for the Ministries of Finance,
Health, Welfare and Sport, Social Affairs and Employment and Justice appear to
account for more than three-quarters of the total amount. More than half of the
administrative burdens seem to be the result of just ten laws. At the level of
the information obligations, the volume of the administrative burdens is mainly
determined by approximately 60 obligations. All other obligations are
relatively small (less than 1 million euros).
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Top 10 legislation causing red tape
The following laws cause the most administrative
burdens for the corporate sector. This list should be regarded as a list of the
laws producing the largest administrative burdens, and not as a representation
of the total administrative burdens in any specific policy area.
|
Legislation
|
|
Ministry
|
|
Amount
(billion euros)
|
|
Information obligation
|
|
Annual
Accounts Act
|
|
Justice
|
|
1.5
|
|
Drawing
up annual accounts and providing the resultant information
|
|
Turnover
Tax Act
|
|
Finance
|
|
1.4
|
|
Stating
VAT number on invoices, VAT returns, payments to Tax Administration
|
|
Commodities
Act
|
|
Health
|
|
1.2
|
|
Quality
and safety regulations, including labelling and packaging regulations
|
|
Environmental
Management Act
|
|
Environment
|
|
1.0
|
|
Information
obligation relating to environmental permits, reporting, etc.
|
|
Wages
and Salaries Tax Act
|
|
Finance
|
|
0.7
|
|
Salary
administration and ensuring payment of wage tax
|
|
Compulsory
Health Insurance Act
|
|
Health
|
|
0.7
|
|
Compulsory
practices for the purposes of financing medical treatment for employees
(declarations)
|
|
Social
Security (Coordination) Act
|
|
Social Affairs
|
|
0.6
|
|
Maintaining
salary administration and payment of employee insurance premiums (including
disability insurance, unemployment insurance)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Income
Tax Act
|
|
Finance
|
|
0.6
|
|
Drawing
up income tax returns
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Prices
Act
|
|
Econ. Affairs
|
|
0.5
|
|
Compulsory
pricing of articles
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Working Conditions Act
|
|
Social Affairs
|
|
0.5
|
|
Informing
employees, risk inventory including action plan for risks in working
conditions
|
|
Total
|
|
|
|
8.7
|
|
|
|
Top
Examples of irritating red tape
Many entrepreneurs
are irritated by laws and regulations with an inefficient structure and/or if
they fail to see the immediate use of the relative laws and regulations. In
2005 this was the top 10.
- Statistics/questionnaires
- Laws and
regulations concerning working conditions
- Applications
permits/licenses
|
|
The government has, from the start, made every effort to remove these
irritations and to reduce the administrative burden. Once the total series of
measures have been taken by 2007 considerable simplifications in many of these
fields mentioned in the Top 10 will have been implemented resulting in a
reduction of the administrative burden for entrepreneurs.
For example, in the past years the number of questionnaires has been
considerably reduced by maximum use of existing sources, the limit amounts in
the law of annual accounts have been increased, various definitions were
harmonized in the field of wages and taxes and the VAT return form is now digital.
In 2007 the final important simplifications of this government are
implemented. This means, inter alia, that
entrepreneurs will be able to prepare financial reports for the Tax and Customs
Administration, Chamber of Commerce and Statistics Netherlands (XBRL) in one
single step, detailed tax rules will be simplified, a statistics holiday will
be introduced for SME entrepreneurs, important simplifications will be
implemented in working conditions regulations, environmental rules will be
updated and preparations will be made for the national introduction of the
environmental permit.
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