SHOPPERS have been urged to boycott Amazon after it emerged that the retail giant paid just £10m in tax in the UK last year despite selling goods worth £4.3bn.
"It is an outrage," declared Margaret Hodge, who chairs the Commons influential Public Accounts Committee. "Amazon should pay their fair share of tax.
"They are making money out of not paying taxes. I no longer use Amazon. "
.Amazon insists it follows the tax rules in all the countries where it operates.
Amazon employs some 7000 staff across the UK in warehousing, accounting, software design and other functions, including a sales distribution centre in Dunfermline and a customer call centre in Edinburgh.
It is able to pay such low tax because when shoppers across Europe buy from any of its local websites, the payment is taken by a subsidiary based in the low tax haven of Luxembourg.
The filed results for amazon.co.uk showed that the company's UK corporation tax bill almost doubled last year to £9.7m .
This reflected a sharp rise of 56 per cent in pre-tax profits to £17.1m as the British business generated more money from providing fulfilment and corporate support services to Amazon group undertakings.
Amazon said in a statement: "The company pays all applicable taxes in every jurisdiction that it operates within.
"Amazon EU serves tens of millions of customers and sellers throughout Europe from multiple consumer websites in a number of languages, dispatching products to all 28 countries in the EU. We have a single European headquarters in Luxembourg with hundreds of employees to manage this complex operation."
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