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Facebook pays just £4,327 corporation tax in 2014.

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Comments

  • Mistermeaner
    Mistermeaner Posts: 2,989 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts
    lets boycott facebook
    Left is never right but I always am.
  • martinsurrey
    martinsurrey Posts: 3,368 Forumite
    Carl31 wrote: »
    I think the public are made to be upset that a multinational corporation the size of Facebook has ONLY paid £4k in Corporation tax, ignoring the income tax paid by their staff of c£35m in bonus payments, plus any NI on the remuneration from both sides, plus the fact they provide employment and other economic benefits etc...

    yeah I know, which is why a well reasoned and inclusive argument isn't forthcoming.
  • Graham_Devon
    Graham_Devon Posts: 58,560 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Carl31 wrote: »
    I think the public are made to be upset that a multinational corporation the size of Facebook has ONLY paid £4k in Corporation tax, ignoring the income tax paid by their staff of c£35m in bonus payments, plus any NI on the remuneration from both sides, plus the fact they provide employment and other economic benefits etc...

    There is though the flip side of this coin. The SMB who doesn't have these grand accountants and ability to divert money to varying countries.

    They have to pay all you state above, PLUS other taxes that are due.

    If companies can simply suggest their employees pay tax, surely that should apply to all companies, rather than just the multinationals?

    Not saying we are, but we don't want to be held to ransom by multinationals with the suggestion that if they have to pay more staff they will simply remove the jobs from people in the UK.

    There clearly is an issue here though, as they have apparently been placed on the investigation list alongside Amazon, Google and Starbucks. This is the EU probe, not UK.
  • michaels
    michaels Posts: 28,767 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    can someone detail out, what the problem in this case is, and how it should be made better?


    So the reading between the lines is that it is pretty unlikely that a company the size of facebook can make huge international profits and yet hardly any taxable profit in the UK. Especially as they are payign large bonuses to their UK employees which is hardly the action of a company that is struggling to make a return on capital.

    The subtext to this is that they are probably either using European law to book all UK transactons through a lower tax country like Luxembourg or Ireland and / or usning tansfer pricing (such as putting a very high value on their ipr) to make it looks liek there is no value added and therefore no profit on their UK operation.

    Fortunately all of this is too complicated for the BBC so they come up with this lauighable attempt at an article designed to play on an emotional 'multi-nationals are bad' sentiment.
    I think....
  • Graham_Devon
    Graham_Devon Posts: 58,560 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 12 October 2015 at 3:17PM
    michaels wrote: »

    Fortunately all of this is too complicated for the BBC so they come up with this lauighable attempt at an article designed to play on an emotional 'multi-nationals are bad' sentiment.

    All they have done in reality is compared how much facebook paid in corporation tax compared to how much someone on the 26k pays in taxes.

    Don't see what the problem is with this to be honest. All it's doing is making the point that facebook paid less in taxes than most of us do each year - which clearly raises an eyebrow or two.

    Most of the reports are the same, with the Guardian also using "facebook paid just". Metro used the same words, as do the Evening Standard, The Express, Daily Mail, The Independent. The telegraph do not appear to have run the story.

    All of the articles follow the same theme - it not just the BBC.
  • CLAPTON
    CLAPTON Posts: 41,865 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    facebook has caused large revenues to accrue to HMRC coffers from its earning.

    if the law is wrong then the law should be changed by due process

    rule by newspapers is not desireable
  • wotsthat
    wotsthat Posts: 11,325 Forumite
    Wish my employer would try and avoid some corporation tax by giving me a £96k bonus.
  • wotsthat
    wotsthat Posts: 11,325 Forumite
    All they have done in reality is compared how much facebook paid in corporation tax compared to how much someone on the 26k pays in taxes.

    Don't see what the problem is with this to be honest. All it's doing is making the point that facebook paid less in taxes than most of us do each year - which clearly raises an eyebrow or two.

    Most of the reports are the same, with the Guardian also using "facebook paid just". Metro used the same words, as do the Evening Standard, The Express, Daily Mail, The Independent. The telegraph do not appear to have run the story.

    All of the articles follow the same theme - it not just the BBC.

    It's such lazy reporting. Sensationalist nonsense to appeal to people's 30 second attention spans and probably all copied straight from Reuters anyway.

    This thread has had more thought put into Facebook's corporation tax than all the journalists put together.
  • martinsurrey
    martinsurrey Posts: 3,368 Forumite
    michaels wrote: »
    So the reading between the lines is that it is pretty unlikely that a company the size of facebook can make huge international profits and yet hardly any taxable profit in the UK. Especially as they are payign large bonuses to their UK employees which is hardly the action of a company that is struggling to make a return on capital.

    The subtext to this is that they are probably either using European law to book all UK transactons through a lower tax country like Luxembourg or Ireland and / or usning tansfer pricing (such as putting a very high value on their ipr) to make it looks liek there is no value added and therefore no profit on their UK operation.

    Fortunately all of this is too complicated for the BBC so they come up with this lauighable attempt at an article designed to play on an emotional 'multi-nationals are bad' sentiment.

    its the first part of your comment that is key.

    "pretty unlikely that a company the size of facebook can make huge international profits and yet hardly any taxable profit in the UK"

    Cut Facebook UK off from accessing any of Facebook US, brand, IP or software, and how long do you think the company would last? In other words, spin off Facebook UK and you'd get nothing for it, as the value is generated in the brand and IP, which is NOT a UK asset.

    That would imply (fag packet) that the transfer pricing is reasonable.
  • Mistermeaner
    Mistermeaner Posts: 2,989 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts
    Facebook doesn't make any money anywhere does it?
    Left is never right but I always am.
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