September 3, 2019

Anna Murray 

Amazon, the massive online retailer from US, claimed on September 3rd that it paid £220m tax in the UK last year, including national insurance of employers, business rates, corporation tax and stamp duty, in ascending order of proportion. This is the first time that Amazon disclosed how much it has paid in the UK entirely, to withstand the criticism of tax underpayment.

The technology giant announced that its revenues in the UK last year were £10.89bn, with £625m in updating warehouses and establishing new offices. Amazon also claimed that from 2010 to 2018, it invested £18bn in UK operations and capital expenditure. In addition, it offered 2000 new vacancies this year.

For the employment relationship, Amazon was previously blamed for staff’s treatment, especially monitoring workers in the warehouses all the time. As a result, the leading e-tailer promised not to use zero-hours contracts for employers any more, as well as to raise salaries to Living Wage levels. 

Photo:Webshot.