Amazon UK pays corporation tax for first time since 2020
The group’s UK services paid £18.7m in “current tax” last year on sales of £27bn
Amazon’s main UK division has paid corporation tax for the first time since 2020 following the end of a ‘super-deduction’ tax break, The Guardian has reported.
The group’s UK services paid £18.7m in “current tax” last year on sales of £27bn. This marks a shift from the £7.8m tax credit received in 2022 and a £1.1m credit in 2021.
The group has been criticised in the past for the proportion of tax it pays in the UK compared to the scale of its operations. High street retailers have argued that the company enjoys an unfair advantage, as they face significant business rates on their physical stores.
Sunak’s “super-deduction” scheme, introduced when he was chancellor, allowed companies to offset 130% of investment spending on plant and machinery against profits for two years from April 2021.
It was then replaced by the government’s full-year expensing scheme, which allowed companies to claim 100% tax relief on qualifying plant and machinery investment.
In total, Amazon’s full UK operation paid £932m in tax last year, including business rates, corporation tax and national insurance contributions, up from £781m the year before.
Paul Monaghan, the chief executive of the Fair Tax Foundation, told The Guardian: “[the public] wants to know how much corporation tax they pay in the UK. They want to know how much profit they actually account for in the UK from the £27bn of revenue they collect here. One can only surmise that the lack of transparency is connected to the sizable chunk of UK revenue that is still shunted to the historically ‘loss-making’ subsidiary in Luxembourg.”
An Amazon spokesperson said: “As we continue to invest in our UK operations and workforce, we help fund public services and vital infrastructure, and create jobs throughout the country. Amazon ranks in the top 10 largest taxpayers in the UK for direct taxes, taxes we collect, and our overall total tax contribution – which was more than £4.3bn in 2023.
“We invested £12bn across the UK in 2023 alone, creating an additional £10bn benefit to UK GDP, and we are also one of the top five capital investors in the country, and a 10 contributor to business rates.”
