Proactive Investors - Amazon’s UK division paid no corporation tax for the second year in a row.
The company, valued at over US$1tn, benefitted from tax credits on its £1.6bn of investment in infrastructure.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) UK Services, which employs more than half of its UK workers, received a £7.7mln tax credit in the year to 31 December, according to accounts at Companies House which were shared with the Guardian.
Introduced by Rishi Sunak when he was Chancellor, the super-deduction scheme allows businesses that invest in infrastructure to offset 130% of spending on against profits for two years from April 2021.
“We now have a situation where Amazon UK Services is not only not paying tax, but is being handed tax credits for investment that almost certainly would have happened anyway,” said Paul Monaghan, chief executive of the Fair Tax Foundation.
“Tax credits for old rope, if you will. These super-deductions have not only wiped out the corporation charge for the last two years but will likely do so again in 2023 and possibly 2024.”
As a results, Amazon’s main UK division paid no corporation tax although it is believed other parts of the group’s UK business did pay an undisclosed amount.
Pretax profits at the main division rose by 9% to almost £222mln in 2022 as sales rose by nearly 8% to £6.56bn.