Amazon to begin paying corporation tax on UK retail sales
Found on The Guardian on Sunday, 24 May 2015
Amazon had for years denied that its UK corporate structures were artificial or tax-motivated. The move will be greeted as a victory for the chancellor who last September singled his determination to rein in technology firms going to extraordinary lengths to avoid UK tax. “You are welcome here in Britain with open arms,” he said.
Sales are still being recorded by Amazon EU Sarl, a Luxembourg-registered company, but – crucially for tax purposes – will be booked in a UK branch of that company, for which a tax return must be filed with HMRC.
It could be so simple: you pay the taxes where you sell your products. However, because different countries have different tax laws, it feels like paying taxes is a matter of choice for big corporations and not a law.