Amazon's tax bill (here we go again)

From The Independent:

Philip Hammond has said he will consider tax changes hitting online businesses to ensure there is a more level playing field for high street retailers.

The hint at a so-called Amazon tax for online companies that sell products over the internet comes as high street stores – under pressure from soaring costs like business rates – demand a fairer system.

The only logical way that a special ‘Amazon tax’ would help high street retailers is if the tax is so high as to discourage people from buying online; or so high as to push Amazon into a permanent loss-making situation.

Mr Hammond added: “The European Union has been talking about a tax on online platform businesses based on the value generated. “That’s certainly something we’d be prepared to consider.”

Amazon already pay two kinds of taxes on ‘value generated’, being normal VAT at 1/6 of their turnover and corporation tax on their residual profits. Do they play fast and loose and book profits sideways elsewhere? Quite possibly, says The Murphmeister, but that’s a different topic. Try enforcing existing laws first before you start inventing new ones on an ad hoc basis.

The Guardian is of course going to town on this:

The company… revealed that pre-tax profits at its UK business tripled from £24m in 2016 to £72m last year. The figures were reported by Amazon UK Services, the company’s warehouse and logistics operation that employs more than two-thirds of its 27,000-plus UK workforce, in its annual financial filing to Companies House. The company almost halved its declared UK corporation tax bill from £7.4m in 2016 to £4.5m last year.

Amazon UK’s warehouse and logistics staff and management enjoyed a bumper $164m (£125m) payout from the company share scheme – a rise of almost a third on 2016’s £95m bonanza – thanks to the company’s surging share price… The payouts will have reduced Amazon’s tax bill because under UK tax law companies are required to deduct the vest value of the shares provided to employees.

Companies aren’t *required* to claim this deduction, but they would be stupid not to (I’ve submitted such claims for my own clients, it’s great fun). The value of those shares is liable to PAYE in full as if it were a cash payment.

PAYE rates are much higher than corporation tax rates, so these share-related gains don’t *reduce*/ Amazon’s tax bill, they significantly *increase* it, i.e. that £125 million was probably taxed at about 40%, meaning Amazon paid £50 million extra PAYE in addition to the £4.5 million corporation tax. Which is a pretty high overall tax rate when compared to £72 million profits.

For accounting purposes Amazon Services UK reports turnover as a charge to its parent company for the cost of delivering products, which hit £1.98 bn last year. Amazon will not reveal how much it paid in total to HMRC last year, beyond what it paid through Amazon Services UK.

That’s turnover net of VAT, so Amazon will have paid about £400 million in VAT as well. Makes a total of £454.5 million tax paid. And we have no reason to assume that they don’t pay full Business Rates on their offices and warehouses etc.

All the mugs who believe that ‘the consumer bears the VAT’ can go back to the remedial class. VAT is a tariff, just like the tariffs that Trump imposed on lots of stuff recently. Did all the businesses affected by them just shrug their shoulders and say ‘Not to worry, consumers in the USA will pay the tax’? Of course not.