Facebook has paid its 362 UK staff members a staggering £35.4 million in share bonuses according to the Companies House filing. Additionally, the company reported fourth-quarter profits of $701m (£462m). Despite this, the official figures show Facebook only paid £4327 in corporation tax during 2014. To put this into perspective, this amount is less than the income tax and national insurance contributions of the average UK salary. This totals at £5392.80 compared to Facebook’s pathetic payment of £4327.
Obviously, Facebook isn’t the only major company guilty of not paying the correct taxation and employing loopholes to offshore assets. Although, the numbers exemplify how ridiculous the behavior of many technology giants is. Public outrage has applied pressure on the UK government to tackle these awful tax schemes. Although, I can’t see anything changing on a huge scale. If companies can get away with avoiding tax, and maximizing their profits, they will. Perhaps, a different tax system is needed to ensure large corporations pay their way.
It does seem unfair that consumers contribute to the economy and pay their taxes while massive companies can behave as they wish. Hopefully, as more stories emerge about the lack of taxation paid, it could shame companies into acting more responsibly.
Thank you BBC for providing us with this information.
“Shame” companies into acting more responsibly??? You sound like this is a PERSON with feelings, not a legal fiction. The only thing that’s going to affect how a company or corporation acts is hitting them in the bottom line. “Shame” them. My aching ass.
In Ireland, we see this every year from companies like Apple and Google especially, even though we don’t have a strong Apple prescence in brick and mortar store. (Google has an EU HQ in Dublin so they do employ Irsih people)
What many economists and accountants from here have requested the EU to change their tax system to tax on assets rather than the loop-hole rife system of “Trickle Down Economics”.