Does Amazon pay its fair share of taxes in the UK & Germany ? - Main contents
Does Amazon live up to its promise? And does it pay its fair share of taxes in Germany and the UK?
In 2015, after an investigation by the European Commission into Amazone’s tax deal with Luxembourg, Amazone promised to start booking sales in Germany and the UK instead of in Luxembourg, so it would start paying taxes in those countries.
But if you look at the data, it looks like Amazon did not keep it’s promise, so that’s why I asked Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon for an explanation, and send him the following email.
Dear Mister Jeff Bezos,
In 2015, Amazon has made a promise after the European Commission launched a probe into Amazon’s tax deal with Luxembourg. Your company announced to start booking sales in Germany and the UK instead of Luxembourg, taking effect from May 1st 2015.
However, when comparing the data of Amazon’s branches in Germany and the UK (obtained from company database Orbis) with the numbers from Amazon’s annual report, promise and reality seems to be far apart. For our understanding, could you elaborate more on the following questions.
How do you explain that revenues booked in Luxembourg (Amazon EU SARL) has actually increased from 16.6 to 21.6 billion euro between 2014 and 2016?How do you explain that revenues booked in the UK (Amazon.co.uk Ltd) have in fact admittedly increased from 0.7 to 1.5 billion pounds between 2014 and 2016, but still remain a tiny fraction of sales generated in the UK (9.5 billion dollar) according to Amazon’s annual report.
How do you explain that revenues booked in Germany (Amazon.de GmbH) have even decreased from 147 to 99 million euro between 2014 and 2016, and still continue to be a fragment of sales generated in Germany (14.1 billion dollar) according to Amazon’s annual report?
In other words, what data supports Amazon’s promise of 2015? We look forward to hearing your explanation.
Kind regards,
Paul Tang, MEP (S&D)