Facebook’s UK Tax Bills Triples to £15.7m
Web design St Helens has found that despite recording increased revenues, back in 2017, Facebook went on to pay £15.7m in taxes, triple the amount it spent the previous year. The tax bill tripled from £5.1m to £15.8m in 2016 and it was due to a complete overhaul of the social media giant’s tax structure. The profits did not change much and only increased by £ 4m from £58.4m up to £62.7m in 2017.
Even so, its corporate tax bill continues to be a point of concern, with consumer groups and policymakers scrutinizing its business model. Chancellor Philip Hammond even threatened to impose a new tax on all tech companies through a system known as the digital services tax. Such is meant to take a tougher stance on the social media giant’s tax arrangements.
After the 2017 Facebook tax accounts were published, the media and policymakers criticized how tech giants had paid tax over the past 12 months. Most of them gave sales via other country and only paid modest amounts of tax to the UK.
Web design St Helens helps businesses establish their platforms online and gives them tip on how to succeed, one of them being tax compliance. With this in mind, let us look at other major tech companies that avoid paying taxes in the UK and the world in general.
Amazon
Amazon has previously been accused of using Luxembourg to dramatically reduce its obligation to pay taxes in the United Kingdom. The company only paid £1.8 in tax back in 2011, despite its £3.35bn sales in the UK. However, the company went on to justify its figures by claiming that it only made £74m in profits.
Starbucks
This coffee giant did not pay even a cent in corporation tax in 2011. Shockingly, it made over £350m that year. When asked, it claimed that it had been making a loss of 14million pounds in the fifteen years of operation in the UK. However, upon further investigation, authorities discovered that this information was entirely inconsistent with its accounts.
Furthermore, it went far from what the company had been telling its shareholders. Eventually, after discussions and public boycott with HMRC, the company decided to pay £20m in taxes over the next 2yrs.
Apple
In the United States Senate, a committee accused Apple of using offshore web entities to avoid paying billions of dollars in income tax. Although the company sees itself as one of the largest taxpayers in the United States, its size leaves many to believe that it could also be one of the largest tax evaders too!
eBay
This online trading company is also viewed by many as one of the notorious tax avoiders in Germany and the UK. It only paid only $1m in taxes despite recording sales of more than 800 million pounds in Britain.
Conclusion
It’s not only Facebook that has come at loggerheads with tax authorities. Many of the famous digital corporations we know and love have also found loopholes and scheme to evade paying taxes. It is, therefore, not surprising to hear that the UK government plans to introduce more stringent measures to solve this terrible menace. Thankfully, web design St Helens have always complied with the tax laws.
