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Amazon to pay tax on UK sales

Amazon has started booking its UK retail sales through the UK, which means its profits will be taxed by HM Revenue and Customs, reports the Guardian. For the past 11 years its UK sales have been booked in Luxembourg. A spokesman for Amazon said the company was ‘now recording retail sales made to customers in the UK through the UK branch. Previously, these sales were recorded in Luxembourg’. The move, which came into force on 1 May, follows the introduction in the UK of a new diverted profits tax, commonly known as the Google Tax, which imposes a 25% tax on companies deemed to be artificially routing profits overseas. Tim Godfray, chief executive of the UK’s Booksellers Association, said ‘the decision by Amazon to end their practice of maintaining that sales to UK consumers were coming from Luxembourg when they have these absolutely massive warehouses and offices in the UK can only be welcomed, as the internet giant will now be assessed for UK Corporation Tax on the same basis as that applying to our members’. He added: ‘We will wait to see exactly how much Corporation Tax Amazon will pay on their UK sales in the future.’

 

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Category: International news