Amazon's main UK operating arm received a £7.6m tax credit from HM Revenue and Customs last year, despite pre-tax profits surging by more than a quarter to £355m. Amazon UK Services, which employs 66,000 of the company's 75,000 British staff, said it owed £9.1m in current tax, but this was reduced by £16.7m in adjustments relating to previous periods, resulting in the credit.
The adjustment reflects relief under a government programme rewarding investment in UK infrastructure. Amazon UK spent £5.2bn last year building and expanding fulfilment centres, corporate offices, machinery, equipment and datacentres. The division also reported an 11% rise in revenue to £8.2bn.
A company spokesperson said Amazon UK Services was only one part of its UK operations, and highlighted delivery on a £40bn investment plan, including a new fulfilment centre in Hull and expanded sites in Northampton, London and Swansea.
Amazon files results for 20 UK businesses, which together generated about £32bn in revenues. An analysis by the Fair Tax Foundation found that the five biggest divisions—including Prime Video, advertising, datacentres and payment processing—saw combined pre-tax profits rise from £455m to £555m, while their combined current tax bill halved to £63m. The foundation's chief executive, Paul Monaghan, said the actual UK corporation tax paid by these operations was just £39m, equating to a rate of 7.1%. 'How on earth can other retailers compete with hard-wired systematic tax avoidance such as this?' he added.
Amazon countered that it paid more than £1.3bn in UK taxes last year, including employer national insurance, business rates and digital services tax, and that its total tax contribution exceeded £6.5bn. It also noted that a significant portion of the £32bn UK revenue is booked through its Luxembourg-based European entity, which reported €91.9bn of income and paid €63.1m in tax.
