Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s UK business said it paid £492mln in direct taxes last year, up from £293mln in 2019, as total sales boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic soared to £20.63bn from £13.73bn.
The tax figure included employer’s national insurance, business rates, stamp duty and corporation tax.
The UK business paid corporation tax of £18.3mln in the year to December 2020, compared with £14.5m the previous year, according to accounts filed at Companies House.
Amazon UK Services, comprising the group’s warehouse and logistics operation, recorded profits of £128mln on revenue of £4.85bn, the Guardian reported.
The online retail giant reports its British retail sales through Luxembourg, but the company said UK retail sales, related expenses, profits and taxes were all recorded in the UK and paid directly to HM Revenue & Customs.
It said it paid £1.06bn in indirect taxes last year, taking its total UK tax contribution to £1.55bn, up from £1.14bn the year before. Most of this was accounted for by higher VAT from surging sales and increased staff numbers.
In a statement, the group said: “We are proud of the significant economic contribution we are making to the UK economy. Looking ahead, we know that the UK remains full of opportunity and we continue to be excited by the potential to continue to invest, create jobs, develop talent and have a positive impact in communities across the country.”
The group said it invested £1.6bn in the UK in 2020, as it expanded its operations to meet surging demand driven by the pandemic.
Amazon employs more than 55,000 people in the UK, including 10,000 jobs created this year. The company has recently tried to attract staff by offering people a £1,000 bonus to work in its UK warehouses.
Amazon, along with other multinationals, has faced questions over how much tax they pay in the UK.
Paul Monaghan, head of the Fair Tax Mark campaign group, told the Guardian that the figures were “more smoke and mirrors from Amazon, who are still refusing to disclose exactly how much total profit they make in the UK, and how much tax they pay on this”.
“Much of their UK income continues to be shunted to Luxembourg, where there is a ‘loss-making’ subsidiary that is not only not paying tax, but is generating enormous tax reliefs that can be used in the future to ensure that little or no tax continues to be paid. Amazon is growing its market domination across the globe on the back of income that is largely untaxed – allowing it to unfairly undercut local businesses that take a more responsible approach,” he told the paper.
In its latest corporate filings in Luxembourg earlier this year, the Amazon EU Sarl unit revealed record sales income of €44bn in Europe in 2020, up from £38bn in 2019. The group did not have to pay any corporation tax because, despite record income, it made a loss of €1.2bn.