Compliance costs are the most comprehensive measure of bureaucracy and the basis of measurement. It covers the time spent and the costs incurred by citizens, businesses and public authorities when they comply with a legal requirement. Every year, the Federal Statistical Office calculates and publishes the change in compliance costs.
When new legal regulations are introduced, the Federal Government is obliged to determine the change in compliance costs. In the Impact Assessment Guidelines, the change in compliance costs is a major indicator for assessing the follow-up costs incurred by those concerned. It also supports the selection of the least costly alternative regulation. As an independent institution, the National Regulatory Control Council examines whether the responsible federal ministry has presented the compliance costs in a reasonable way.
The continuous documentation of compliance costs is performed at the Federal Statistical Office. To this end, all legislative projects of the Federal Government are covered which have been adopted by the Federal Cabinet or - in the case of ministerial ordinances - for which interministerial coordination, including the opinion of the National Regulatory Control Council, has been completed.
The Federal Government reports annually about the development of compliance costs. Based on the documentation, and commissioned by the Federal Government, the Federal Statistical Office calculates the change in compliance costs for every year. The results are published in the Federal Government's annual report and in the table "Development of annual compliance costs" of the Federal Statistical Office.