Amazon £7bn sales, but no tax! Should we boycott Amazon this Christmas?

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Comments

  • comeandgo
    comeandgo Posts: 5,742 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    They are not doing anything illegal. Its called business planning. Jap200, do you take a small wage and the rest in dividends to limit the amount of income tax you pay? Most directors I know do.
  • FrugalFranny
    FrugalFranny Posts: 150 Forumite
    Personally, I love Amazon.
    the tax issue I can understand with a shop like st*rBucks as there are an actual shop with tills, tables and all that gubbins. They take up space on the high street and force other smaller shops out.....but Amazon?
    A bunch of warehouses that you can't walk into, physically browse and then buy on the spot from is another matter in my opinion.
    YES, they squeeze the high street shops, but that's not a bad thing sometimes, and not everyone is willing to rely on internet companies to safely deliver gifts for important events. A lot of people simply won't buy important gifts over the net as they can't pick them up and have a closer look. Who wants to risk buying their OH/mother/father/kids/favorite stalker something that turns out to be lower quality than expected?....it'll only happen once!

    So "boo hiss!" to St*rBucks, and "Yes please!" to Amazon.

    If the internet went "fizz fizz bang!" tonight and was no more, apart from a few boxes with their name on them, where would they be?

    GONE

    (yes I know we have 'drop off points' and 'lockers' coming in....but how do you buy things from them without the internet?.....Not even a catalog.....)
    ~"I don't cook so much since we moved out of reality...."~
  • Casperthefriendlyghost
    Casperthefriendlyghost Posts: 960 Forumite
    I use play.com because they don't charge postage so don't use amazon much anymore anyway.

    Casper
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  • I_luv_cats
    I_luv_cats Posts: 14,441 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    I seem to spot s.a.r.l on many businesses I deal with.

    There would need a lot of boycotting to be done!
  • Casperthefriendlyghost
    Casperthefriendlyghost Posts: 960 Forumite
    ..... and I love Starbucks! Will never ever boycott them ;o)

    *Sorry*

    Casper
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  • jap200
    jap200 Posts: 2,033 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker Xmas Saver!
    edited 13 November 2012 at 9:18PM
    comeandgo wrote: »
    They are not doing anything illegal. Its called business planning. Jap200, do you take a small wage and the rest in dividends to limit the amount of income tax you pay? Most directors I know do.

    Obviously Amazon are not doing anything illegal, but avoiding paying any tax at all - as for others such as Starbucks etc. is surely just playing the system too far.

    Yes I do take a small wage and the rest in dividends, but the dividends are taken AFTER 20% corporation tax is paid on the profits. This means that I are not liable to pay income tax on the dividends unless it takes me into a higher rate tax bracket, but that is only because the tax has already been paid - as corporation tax rather than income tax.

    I expect that Amazon has plenty of workers on low wages who then claim tax credits etc. Where does the money for these tax credits come from? It comes from taxes paid by workers and companies.

    Amazon also relies on the infratructures such as roads to get their goods to customers. Where does the money for roads etc. come from? It comes from taxes paid by workers and companies.

    None of us like paying tax, and there is certainly nothing wrong with minimising our tax liabilities, but avoiding paying tax altogether when making such huge profits is just morally wrong.

    Having said all that, I will probably also fail to avoid Amazon altogether this Christmas, but I'm going to try and push them out of first place on my shopping list.
  • john1
    john1 Posts: 405 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary
    France seeks over $250 million in back taxes from Amazon.
    Google is also under audit by the French tax authority regarding its structure, which channels sales through Ireland, but the company denied a newspaper report last month that it had received a back tax claim for 1 billion euros.




    http://www.france24.com/en/20121112-france-tax-authority-hits-internet-retailer-amazon-with-252-million-dollar-claim




    Amazon currently on BBC Parliament at the moment
  • grintricha
    grintricha Posts: 223 Forumite
    First Post
    yes stop buying from them, it's the only way they'll notice

    Thatcher killed this country and gave you one power, that of a consumer, use it, it's not much of a power but it's all we have left.
  • beautybutterfly
    beautybutterfly Posts: 334 Forumite
    Sorry, i'd never commit to boycotting someone like amazon, they have too many good deals and not using them doesn't benefit me in any real way, shape or form... same with starbucks, I love their coffee too much!
  • dktreesea
    dktreesea Posts: 5,736 Forumite
    beautybutterfly wrote: »
    Sorry, i'd never commit to boycotting someone like amazon, they have too many good deals and not using them doesn't benefit me in any real way, shape or form... same with starbucks, I love their coffee too much!

    I feel the same way. It's up to the government to have appropriate tax laws in place. But how would they do it? Chinese companies, for example, would supply thousands of British businesses with goods, presumably very profitably, but they wouldn't be asked to pay British taxes even if they had an office here. If they want Amazon to be based here rather than in Luxembourg, maybe they should have tax rates and breaks that compete with Luxembourg's tax rates.

    There are certainly countries around the world that say if you want to trade in our country you have to have a local partner or you have to pay income tax on the trades made in the country in question. Australia comes to mind for the latter. But Britain isn't one of them.

    This strikes me more as hard up governments - I see France is also chasing Amazon for some dosh - looking around for some company that is substantial enough to fleece and then trying to manufacture some excuse to do it.
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