The spotlight is on Amazon at the moment as it has recently been uncovered that their low level of reported sales and profits in the UK isn’t all that it appears to be. Amazon is apparently directing its sales through the tax haven of Luxembourg, and ensuring that it pays only 4.5% tax on its European profits, rather than the 24% that it would be paying it if registered those profits in Britain.
British consumers account for approximately half of all of the European sales that the company has, and yet the UK accounts have shown very low reported sales. MoS recently unearthed these Luxembourg figures, confirming that Amazon is avoiding a large tax bill by shifting their earnings there.
Both Amazon and Google have recently become the target of public and political anger over these issues, and the US and French tax authorities may start looking into the situation.
As an Amazon spokesman said, “We pay all applicable taxes in every jurisdiction we operate in. We have a single European headquarters in Luxembourg with hundreds of staff to manage this complex operation.”