Michael Rogers, communications officer for the Small Business Association of Michigan, talks with Todd McCrackin, president and CEO of the National Small Business Association, about their new survey on the full extent of how the regulatory burden is hurting small businesses.

The top two most burdensome areas for small business were the federal tax code and Affordable Care Act. The survey also found that regulatory burden falls squarely on the small-business owner, as he/she handles the bulk of federal regulatory compliance. Astoundingly, 14 percent of small-business owners report they spend more than 20 hours per month on federal regulations. When asked to estimate their first year’s regulatory costs, the average was a whopping $83,019. Complexity is still the biggest problem with regulations, however, creating huge headaches even for small firms that ultimately don’t have to comply. Nearly three-in-four small firms say they have read through proposed regulations, yet 63 percent say that they only have to comply with those regulations they read half the time or less, which represents a massive waste of time.

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