August 7th, 2018.



Amazon has cut its company tax bill in the UK this year, instigating anger amongst business owners.

The retail and cloud computing giant’s UK arm, Amazon UK Services, paid only £1.7 million in tax this year, less than the £7.4 million from last year.

It was able to defer tax payments by paying staff in share-based payments – worth an average of £1,000 each per year.

This is despite a pre-tax profits jump of £72.3 million from £24.3 million.

‘Corporation tax is based on profits, not revenues, and our profits have remained low given retail is a highly competitive, low-margin business and our continued heavy investment,’ an Amazon spokesperson told The Guardian.

SMEs across the UK have bemoaned Amazon’s tax evasion, which is not illegal in the UK. Tax is a tricky subject as all SMEs want to pay their fair share of tax in the UK. But how can SME’s ensure that their own tax arrangements are as lean as possible, like Amazon’s?

How to reduce your company tax bill
One way of doing it is to claim research and development tax credits from the government...... 


For the full story at growthbusiness.co.uk CLICK HERE.