Amazon UK’s primary UK division has paid corporation tax for the first time since 2020. This follows the end of a super-deduction tax break, introduced by Rishi Sunak, which Amazon (and other businesses) were able to use to offset 130 per cent of investment spending on plant and machinery in 2021 & 2022.
Amazon UK Services has said that it paid £18.7m in “current tax” last year, which is assumed to have been mostly corporation tax, on sales of £27bn which is up from the £24bn it generated in FY22.
In total, Amazon says its full UK operations paid £932m in tax including business rates, corporation tax and national insurance contributions but this clouds the issue of how much profit is being declared for the UK operations, and how much of it is taxable in the UK
The Fair Tax Foundation says that Amazon needs to be more transparent about its tax affairs citing the perception that it may not account for the full profit generated from the UK market in the UK itself, but potentially instead record it in Luxembourg.
Share