eBay pays just £1.1 million tax on £1 billion of UK sales
The company reduced its tax bill by sending the fees paid by British sellers to its Swiss parent company
ONLINE auction giant eBay’s UK arm paid only £1.1million in taxes on more than £1billion turnover last year.
The company reduced its tax bill by sending the fees paid by British sellers to its Swiss parent company.
Their set-up was revealed after a presentation to investors in the US.
It touted Britain as the firm’s second biggest market, bringing in £1.1billion of sales a year.
But the UK branch’s accounts reported revenues of just £185million for the year to December 31.
It meant it was able to pay just £1.1million in taxes for that financial period.
The method of directing income to other tax-friendly countries by businesses operating in UK is not a new concept.
Google and Apple are known to do the same thing to a European based sales centre.
A spokesman for eBay said: “In all countries and at all times, eBay is fully compliant with national, EU and international tax rules.”