New measures for businesses to submit pension administration electronically have been criticised as ‘red tape’ by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).
From today, certain information – including applications to register for a pension scheme, accounting for tax returns and event reports – must be supplied to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) electronically.
As many small businesses work predominantly with the postal and faxing systems, this controversial move means that small businesses have no choice over how they can supply information – prior to this, businesses had the choice to submit information on paper.
Instead of catering to the needs of small businesses, the changes are ‘costly,’ and focussed more on the gains for civil servants, according to the FSB.
“Making electronic filing compulsory is going to add to the burden already faced by small business owners,” said Mike Cherry, the FSB’s financial affairs chairman.
“It is always good to have new options, but this is not an option, just another compulsory requirement by the government. Business owners are not being encouraged to grow when they are spending too much of their time having to conform to more red tape,” he concluded.
However, Julie Elsey, head of Pension Scheme Service warned: “If you are a pension scheme administrator, and you haven’t registered to file online, you should do so as soon as possible. Otherwise you may be storing up problems for the future.”
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