Amazon.co.uk pay ZERO tax in the UK. Why are people more annoyed about the bloke down the road maybe getting a benefit that he shouldn't than that. I don't understand.

I dont think taxing an entity just becuase it uses a .co.uk web address would work - they will just use a different web address.

Non-UK headquartered companies are not exempt from UK corporation tax, by the way. If they have a UK branch (presence), the profits earned by the UK branch are subject to UK tax. Hence, Amazon must either be conducting business in an way that they dont have a UK branch (so that they transact with UK customers from overseas) or so that the profits attributable to the branch are low (eg becuase they have high expesnes in the UK).

If Amazon does not have a UK branch (employees on the ground in the UK whose activities give rise to the profits), then why should the UK have taxing rights? if the suggestion is that there should be UK taxing rights just becuase customers are in the UK, that is contrary to general principles of international taxation (it is not a loophole but widely applied principles). It would not be open to the UK to chose to tax companies with no presence (even a branch) here becuase they have entered into international agreements with lots of other countries which make clear that they are not entitled to tax in these circumstances. Most countries (apart from havens) enter into these types of agreements which are designed to prevent more than one country taxing the same profits. Assuming that Amazon are genuinely set up so that it is their overseas activities that give rise to their profits, I dont see that this could be said to be tax avoidance when it is entirely consistent with international taxation pricniples. The e-commerce angle does murky things a bit and there have certainly been reviews over the years (involving the OECD etc) on whether there should be changes to these principles to reflect the way business is now done, but so far the current allocation of taxing rights has been preserved.
You cant say that it is not fair when the UK in turn quite happily taxes UK companies on their profits from French customers.

Remember during the middle east riots, the first sign to the outside world was that all internet communication to Egypt (iirc) were shut down - internet blackout.

So presumably there is some way to police it.

Yeah, Boots and Walkers Crisps have done similar (amongst others.)

Why the fucking fuck doesn't the UK tax profits earned in the UK? It's insane.

Oh, and they shouldn't be allowed to offset debts to forrin banks against UK earnings, either. That just makes more money bleed out of Britain into some other country.

Do they, BleatingRose ? How on earth do they police it?

Erm.... being able to buy a product cheaper through Amazon is a significant benefit to me.

I don't care if Amazon don't pay UK tax. I could just as easily buy from a US company domiciled in the US and have it flown here (as I actually did a few weeks ago) for almost the same price. That US domiciled company will I bought from will not pay UK tax either although it will hand over the VAT to HMRC.

Bastardos. Hate this shit.

And hate the fact that people bleat on about people getting benefits.

Even scamming benefits - it's such small fry compared to these idiots.

you shouldn't be a '.co.uk' if you're not registered here! Other countries impose restrictions like that, seems wrong.

If we had more favourable taxation for corporations in the UK then we'd tempt more of them here. Other countries understand this (eg Switzerland and Ireland etc) hence why they choose to base themselves there.

We benefit from businesses being here through jobs (both directly and indirectly - for example all the couriers Amazon uses).

Just wanted to clarify that I am self employed and am often paid in cash. I take that cash and put it in the bank along with the cheques, all of which is declared (though you don't have to even put it in the bank, just declare it).

Some business accounts charge for depositing cheques so that may be part of the reason tradesmen charge more for cheques.

Of course many do avoid tax but I hate when customers hand me cash with a conspiratorial wink or get pissy when I quote the same for cheque or cash.

Well to be honest all tax evasion / avoidance p's me off. As does benefit fraud. Quite frankly all these b*stards are stealing from each and every one of us adn it gets me incredibly angry. Of course Dave will only go after the easy targets, he can't go annoying his CEO mates who will be giving him and George the new job when he gets kicked out of office in a couple of years.

Disclaimer - I should say I hate most politicians - Dopy Dave, Idiotic Ed and Numpty Nicks parties are all crap, they all let big corporations do as they please.

.co.uk sites can be based anywhere, Chicken - it's why you always have to try & find out exactly where, if a site seems a bit dodgy & doesn't give UK contact information

I received something VATable from amazon today & the VAT is itemised - presumably this means HMRC receives it...?

The firm I mentioned earlier was a UK Ltd company but stil paid no tax as it generated no profit in the UK. A .co.uk address signifies nothing. Not even the location of a computer server.

Surely a .co.uk should be classed as based in the uk? It is UK territory, even if this is a web territory.

Good question Pag. Many sales that would happen on our high streets are now made online so this should be looked into.

In the uk, Amazon are a service centre so don't pay corporation tax. They do however contribute via employee taxes, and a not insignificant employer National Insurance contribution.

Of course, they do employ a lot of people on zero-hour contracts with T&Cs that make it incovenient to have supplementary jobs. And it isn't uncommon for said people to be called into work for a fractional amount of paid time that doesn't cover the travel expenses for that day.

But these are probably topics for another discussion.

This is a non issue they are paying the relevant taxes as they are registered in Luxembourg.

Sorry, Luxembourg/ Switzerland confusion. Which raises the point, what is the point of the EU if member states can offer tax benefits that undercut other states.

Why should they base their HQ in england? They aren't an exclusively English corporation and deal with all over Europe!

A business needs to make its decisions based on what makes financial sense.

I'm off to buy stuff now... And not give a flying fook

they're in Luxembourg, not Switzerland??

\link{http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/31/amazon-fourth-quarter-results-kindle?INTCMP=SRCH& the parent company is claiming declining profits & forecasting a loss in the current quarter}

We benefit in the short term from low prices as individual consumers , but Amazon and other online retailers inevitably threaten employment in real shops, therefore the property value of real shops and a boroughs income from business rates, and once we pick up the bill for all this as taxpayers we may not benefit so well.

Amazon, an offshore company, taking all our money to sell us things that would have formerly been made here now manufctured in China - I wonder where it will all end?

I see that many of the marketplace partners at Amazon avoid VAT by pricing an item at 0.1p and charginf £5.95 for p&p.

They are an American company, with a European division who operate in 5 EU countries ( Germany, France, UK, Italy and Spain)

And yet they chose to base themselves in Switzerland.

I should add that I refuse to use them for other reasons and bought all my book Christmas presents from our local real life bookshops.

They are an American company, with a European division who operate in 5 EU countries ( Germany, France, UK, Italy and Spain).

You could probably give a very strong arguement that they are better off basing their European HQ on the mainland, not in the UK.

So really, they pay all their taxes and aren't doing anything wrong.

Unless you think that companies should have to set up an HQ in every country where they have a presence.