AIBU to avoid Amazon

[Mayisout]

I am an amazon addict but since reading this
www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/04/amazon-british-operation-corporation-tax
have been buying books at my local shop, surprisingly they stocked what I was after and had only to pop in to pick them up (phoned first to make sure they had them, they'll get things in if you ask).
Another online place to buy books is
www.abebooks.co.uk/?cm_ven=Google&cm_cat=UBT&cm_pla=abebooks.&cm_ite=abebooks.
So I now search on Amazon but buy elsewhere if I can, most products can be found on other sites if you look.
Amazon pays no UK corporation tax on the £3bn it takes out of the economy -Why should Luxembourg profit from my purchases?

yy Kayano. I have to say that Amazon's service is wonderful, I use them a lot - fab products, a huge range and good prices.

YABU

By searching on Amazon, you're boosting their site hits, and therefore their advertising income. If you're so against them, do your research elsewhere.

I like Amazon. If I want to buy something, 99% of the time they sell it.

It is convenient.

Fredfred, you are right I have mixed up sales and profit but the Guardian article says
UK sales over the past three years, according to the SEC filings, were between £7.6bn and £10.3bn. If the same profit margin was applied, this would have generated taxable profits of £266m-£360m and yielded notional UK corporation tax of up to £100m. so not to be sniffed at.

Abesbooks and the book depository already seem to be owned by Amazon so the choice is limited.

Sorry but applying an accounting margin to the sales figure does not give you taxable profits. It is kind of frustrating how little journalists seem to understand about how corporation tax is actually calculated!

Lots of people were happy to benefit from the lower prices brought about by avoiding the VAT.

Also, as a member of the EU we have signed up to various things - one of which is freedom of establishment which means companies are free to move within the EU without prejudice.

If HMRC were truly concerned about this a little transfer pricing enquiry should establish whether or not taxable profits are being shifted out of the UK or not

Instead of just picking on Amazon why not extend your research and boycott all the companies who are british and don't pay tax in this country as well

Yes, good point. But I shop at amazon, or did, and not at others. Philip Green of Arcadia doesn't pay tax either (something to do with it being in his wife's name and she is resident in Monaco) but I don't shop there -Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Topman, Topshop, Wallis and BHS, and the out of town chain Outfit, so wasn't going to change anything by boycotting them.
I do shop at John Lewis
It wouldn't be that hard for people to skew their shopping to British tax paying companies. If it hit their profits there would be a quick shift of policy I should think. But we aren't v patriotic here so prob few takers.

Sorry but applying an accounting margin to the sales figure does not give you taxable profits. It is kind of frustrating how little journalists seem to understand about how corporation tax is actually calculated

Whatever the taxable profits Amazon thought it a sufficient saving to prompt a move of their administration to Luxemburg.

But if you look at it from a wider perspective... Amazon have moved to Luxembourg creating jobs there. The lower taxes mean they are then able to be competitive on prices which means people use them more which means they have massive warehouses in the UK and are therefore large employers in the UK.

Perhaps if the UK government looked at making the UK a more business friendly country, as Luxembourg have had the good sense to do, companies would stay and pay more tax.

Then people wouldn't bleat about Luxembourg being some kind of tax haven, as it really isn't.

Amazon own Bookdepository and abebooks anyway and are evil so and so's IMHO they sell books at a loss to 1) kill bookshops off 2) make themselves a one stop shop for everything and they are quite up front about it.

www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/06/tim-waterstone-attacks-amazon-tax-avoidance

I buy my books from my local indie when I can or waterstones.com or whsmith.co.uk instead.

I am addicted to Amazon - my OH just bought my engagement ring from there

I have just emailed Amazon to close my account.

A boycott in California led to Amazon paying sales tax there. Like the situation in the UK this was a legal loophole not tax evasion. However Amazon decided to change the way they paid tax rather than suffer a boycott.

Families are being made homeless in this country because their Housing Benefit is cut to less than the cheapest affordable rent. The alternative to doing something about is simply letting things carry on as they are.