TWO-THIRDS OF small businesses are hesitant to hire new employees due to the burden of PAYE, according to a poll from a software provider.
The Intuit survey showed that 69% of small business owners are put off from hiring. Almost half of employers said they were unaware of the deadline for filing their PAYE end of year returns (P14/P35s), which was 19 May. A quarter of respondents (28%) said that they did not expect to complete their returns before the deadline.
Mark Linton, who set up The Business Growth Show events company, said: “One of the key challenges for any small business right now employing staff is not necessarily actually the process of getting a staff member on, it’s once you’ve got them on: how do you pay them, are you doing it right, is legislation getting in your way? I really do think that PAYE for any small business is a logistical nightmare.”
HM Revenue & Customs this year removed a seven-day period of grace for missing the deadline because it had previously used the postal service.