Amazon UK website records £5.3bn sales in 2014

25 June 2015 Books+Publishing

Amazon’s UK website has recorded sales of £5.3bn (A$10.8bn) for the year ending December 2014, up 14% from £4.49bn (A$9.1bn) the previous year, reports the Bookseller. The net sales for Amazon.co.uk are taken from accounts filed in the US, however the retailer’s accounts filed in the UK show a turnover in 2014 of just under £680m (A$1.3bn), up from £450m (A$917m) in 2013. The difference is due to Amazon’s previous practice of booking UK sales in Luxembourg, with the UK figures covering warehousing, distribution and administrative costs rather than sales. Amazon’s UK accounts also disclose that operating profit rose to £35.6m (A$72.5m) in 2014, up from £18.2m (A$37.1m) in 2013, and government grants rose 14% to £1.8m (A$3.7m). The overall UK tax that Amazon paid for 2014 was £11.9m (A$24.2m), with £8m (A$16.3m) paid in corporation tax, down 18% from the amount paid in corporation tax in 2013. As previously reported by Books+Publishing, Amazon started booking its UK retail sales through the UK in May 2015, following the introduction of a new diverted profits tax in the UK, which imposes a 25% tax on companies deemed to be artificially routing profits overseas.

Category: International news