The company that wants to bring us drone deliveries and deliveries to our cars has now changed its ways in terms of paying taxes. Up until recently, Amazon sifted sales through Luxembourg as to avoid profit Tax. In 2013, Amazon booked a huge £4.7 billion of UK sales through Luxembourg which resulted in a relatively miniscule £4.7 million to pay in UK taxes.
According to The New York Times, Amazon will be rolling this out across Germany, Italy and Spain. “Although potentially Amazon will pay more tax in each of those countries, there are still ways for it to minimise its tax bill, for example by setting the cost of “licences” to the main US company for the use of trademarks against profits—a common accounting technique among international companies with branches overseas. This means the tax paid by Amazon in the UK may still not be that significant.”
The most likely reason for this is to cut short an investigation into the company from the tax arrangements with Luxembourg. Although the investigation is still in early stages, formal action by the European Commission could lead to forced changes in its EU practices; voluntary changes would make a lot of sense.
How do you feel that global companies are essentially dodging tax? Should they all be made to pay or should some companies pay less or more? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Thank you to ArsTechnica for providing us with this information.
I would only accept it if the products turned out to be cheaper to order :/