UK gov mulls 'Amazon tax' to help pandemic recovery

Major online retailers such as Amazon could be forced to pay additional tax in order to help the UK recover from the financial strain of the COVID pandemic.

According to the Sunday Times, HM Treasury officials invited tech firms and retailers to discuss the potential Online Sales Tax.

The summon comes days after it was revealed that Amazon’s profits skyrocketed by 51% to almost £20 billion in 2020. Despite its massive success, fueled partly by brick and mortar stores shutting their doors due to lockdown restrictions, Sky reports that the online retailer had a tax turnover ratio of 0.37%.

In response, an Amazon spokesperson told IT Pro that the company had “invested more than £23 billion in jobs and infrastructure in the UK since 2010”. 

“Last year we created 10,000 new jobs and last week we announced 1,000 new apprenticeships. This continued investment helped contribute to a total tax contribution of £1.1 billion during 2019 – £293 million in direct taxes and £854 million in indirect taxes,” the spokesperson added.

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