James
Amazon has revealed that it has managed to cut its cooperation tax by 50% by paying only £7 million opposed to £15 million the year before. Amazons excuse is that its profits have slided saying the company has apparently only made £48 million in profit this year. However annual sales for Amazon in the U.K. have grew to over £7.3billion. To add further rub things in Amazon collected £1.3million back from the taxman. The company has a world wide market capitalization of over $430 billion and Jeff Bezos who owns Amazon and is the second richest person in the world worth $83.6 billion.. but how can he be so rich if amazon struggles to make a profit? Many small business owners will find this latest news hard to swallow as many small businesses online and on the high street amazon thrives at the expense of these uk businesses.
Labour MP Margaret Hodge has urged consumers to booycott the company saying
She said: “It remains outrageous that Amazon are so blasé that they can ignore all the anger that their failure to pay fair tax in this country.
“It is a scandal they are deliberately manipulating the way they do their business for no other purpose than to avoid tax.”
“I hope people take a leaf out of my book and stop using Amazon.
“If we stop using Amazon then they may understand how angry their customers are.”
This is not tax avoidance but blatant tax EVASION by Amazon using clever accountants to cook its books in order to pay less cooperation tax than it should be paying. A criminal investigation MUST be done. Jeff Bezos needs to be locked. If this was any other smaller UK businesses HMRC would not be so which begs the question who’s side are the tories actually on?
Is it time that amazon was broken up?
Amazon’s monopoly on online commerce is corrosive and is harmful to both small businesses and consumers. Amazon is quickly turning into the go to location for ordering things online. This forces many smaller businesses to rely on third party selling on amazon to do business on the internet. In effect creating a tax (how ironic) that small businesses have to pay amazon to sell. Not only do small owners have to pay this amazon selling tax they also at the mercy of amazon. Amazon will regularly trample on third party sellers on its marketplace by practicing anti competitive behaviour to promote their own products to the expense of third party sellers and consumers.
Amazon even wants to get rid of its own workforce by developing AI systems such as automated drone delivery and ai warehouse pickers. Amazon is not innovative the web giant simply uses tactics such as buying up companys to expand as well as using its vast wealth to undercut competition and taking the loss on the chin to wipe out competition (only to increase prices when competition has been wiped out).
