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Comment by PunchTornado | Hacker News Reader

so on £80m profit, they paid £1.7m tax, only 2%.

God, if I was a corporation too, instead I pay 40% taxes on my salary.

They're not paying "just" 2% in their entire structure. Those profits flow back through various entities, to the US (where they will pay additional tax), to the shareholders (either ultimately through dividends or buybacks, which is subject to tax again).

profit made in the UK should be taxed by the UK. I don't care what the US does.

And this amazon, a seller/reseller of goods. If they disappear then people would just shop in another place. It's not like they are researching and building unique and non-replaceble products like apple or google.

So if you own a British company, and do few jobs in France, where do you think you will be paying tax? In general, tax is paid where you declare the tax residence, not where you work. I know at least several people who live in Denmark but commute daily to Sweden for work, and of course they pay tax in Denmark, because that's where their tax residency is - it's the same with companies in general.

The USA isn’t in the EU, though of course there’s quite a few treaties and agreements in place. But frankly, the worldwide dominance of US companies coupled with their comparative lack of tax burden in other countries starts to grate on us over here (Australia in my case), rightly or wrongly. It’s not felt that they’re paying their fair share.

Amazon is Amazon UK Ltd in UK. A company registered in UK. Facebook is Facebook UK Ltd. Another company registered in the UK. They both pay taxes here. But not what it should because of accounting artifacts and weak laws.

If a company have contract in another country there are definitely taxes to be paid in that country. It doesn't mean that some of those taxes can not be claimed back, but the work is effectively done abroad (as opposed to tax domiciliation) and therefore the tax is due in that country according to its laws.

In the EU all member countries have laws against double taxation - so you only pay the tax where the company is registered. If VAT is due, you have to collect rate that applies in the country where the trade/contract was executed, but you still pay it in your home country.

So how is US related to the people living in the UK? I don’t see US paying for the police making sure their offices aren’t looted on a daily basis.

They're creating jobs in the UK, on which those employees pay income tax, which contribute directly to the UK treasury.

Those jobs wouldn't be there without the US company that is Amazon. Having Amazon invest in the UK is a net win for the country. In addition to corporate tax, they likely also pay indirect taxes, such as business rates on property, stamp duty, and (some) VAT.

If you were to flip this, I take it you prefer a company such as BP pays all of their tax in the country they operate in, and very little in the UK? Most assets are not UK based, after all. That's the same reasoning.

They're creating contractors who have to pay their own tax on top of the horrific expectations Amazon thrown on them.

Not exactly the best.

Never did I say they were creating amazing jobs. Most lower end jobs suck. But they do bring in tax (or end up reducing the amount of social security payments that need to be paid otherwise) -- both are net positives.

Their subcontractors bring in tax, not them. And Amazon are not creating the jobs that working class wants, since they give no future guarantees.

A job you don't want is better than no job at all.

A job you don't want but have no other choice, is a job that occupies the space of the other jobs, that potentially could be better. Amazon is an entity that is concerned with growth, but not with creating the society that works for an another century.

Corporation tax is based on profits. But what Amazon does is it directs all of it’s profits to growth and obviously to the raise of it’s power.

I don’t see any difference between earning more money or power. Except we have not yet invented any way of taxing power.

I wouldn’t go too much about Amazon only if Amazon actually created jobs that implied better societal cohesion, but what they do is they take advantage of the poor and uneducated in order to bring even more power to their own table that they share with nobody else.

I prefer that in a globalised world, companies pay taxes based on how much they have earn and employ in the country they operate in. No tax heavens - the only reason they exist is because other countries subsidise their military/safety nets and education.

At some point we do have to realise more rules aren't helping.

Yes, the tax avoidance strategy Amazon uses is unique and interesting in that they keep growing massively, investors value them as a massively profitable company, yet they declare almost no taxable profit. But do we fix this, and if so, how? Maybe monopoly or monopsony laws need to be strengthened..

There will always be ways to avoid tax for those unwilling to pay (tax avoidance is as old as taxation itself), and past a certain point it gets a bit ridiculous to try and create more rules and laws.

> Those jobs wouldn't be there without the US company that is Amazon.

I'm not sure I agree with the implication here that Amazon's services to the UK would not be filled by some other entity in its absence.

Police protect people, by and large. Corporations don't benefit much from services of the state. Fire services would be a better example but they are often funded out of local rates rather than national corporation tax.

As a Brit I wish my country would give up on these boring and routine "outrage" stories. Amazon pays corporation tax in America because it's an American company. End of story. If my fellow Brits want a world beating firm like Amazon that brings profits back to the UK locally, they need to get cracking and make one.

Corporations don't benefit much from services of the state.

They certainly benefit from investments in education, the road network, telecoms, etc.

Also courts and established legal systems.

It's amazing how little people value all that stuff until they actually need it.

I know, right? The only reason I realised that was because I am from a country that legally has all of that but none of it properly works. Large corporations don’t work very well in these countries (or they work really well, depending on how illegal they would like to be).

Companies pay if they want the services of the courts to resolve disputes. They don't get it for free

Don't corporations benefit from having a base of consumers protected by the state? And employees educated by the state. And able to travel to your business on roads paid for by the state, etc etc.

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