Calls are being made for Amazon to “toe the line” and begin to pay corporation tax in each of the countries in Europe in which it actually trades, rather than, as currently, via the headquarters it has located in tax “sweet spot” Luxembourg.
Amazon Europe paid a minuscule sum in tax last year – just £15 million on sales of close to £20 billion. In the UK, its Amazon UK Services operation paid an extraordinarily low £7.4 million in corporation tax on sales of £1.46 billion. This sales figure is a fraction of the overall total revenues generated in the UK which are understood to have been over £7 billion in 2016 but are accounted for in an arrangement that denies the UK an appropriate level of tax revenue.
It is understood that finance ministers in several EU member countries are now seeking to apply pressure on all multinationals which are failing to pay their fair share of tax on revenues and profits generated in their respective countries. They are seeking transparency not only into the methods used by the multinationals to sidestep paying tax in their countries but also the arrangements which other EU member countries have entered into with the multinationals in order to specifically benefit their own countries at the expense of other member countries.
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