Amazon pays less corporation tax in 20 years than Marks and Spencer paid last year alone

ONLINE retail giant Amazon has paid just £61.7million corporation tax in the UK over the last 20 years after amassing £7billion in turnover through British sales over the same period.

The figure is less that what Marks and Spencer and other major UK retailers pay in one year alone.

This Christmas the US firm saw a surge in sales as high street shops struggled against growing online consumerism.

Amazon, owned by the world's richest man Jeff Bezos, experienced a sales jumps by a fifth to £55billion in the final quarter of 2018.

The boost meant the company took £177billion in total last year.

But despite its massive takings, Amazon has been diverting sales abroad for almost two decades to limit its tax bill here, the reports.

Amazon is taking advantage of the international tax system to exploit the UK. The UK and other countries let them.

Tax campaigner Richard Murphy

Amazon UK Services has turned over a whopping £6.86 billion since 1998, yet it made just £213million profit in all that time, according to the newspaper.

The company reportedly paid £61.7million corporation tax on that profit, meaning it was paying a tax rate of just under 30%.

Meanwhile, Marks and Spencer paid 65.4million corporation tax only last year, and 3.3billion in the last two decades.

Tesco is another UK giant whose £173million corporation tax bill last year dwarfed Amazon's 20-year bill of 61.7million.

Tax campaigner Richard Murphy told the newspaper: “Amazon is taking advantage of the international tax system to exploit the UK. The UK and other countries let them.

“It’s time for countries to cooperate to eliminate this type of thing. But the UK is still objecting to many of the reforms.”

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