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Why Amazon's UK Tax Bill Has Dropped 50% (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BBC: Amazon has seen a 50% fall in the amount of UK corporation tax it paid last year, while recording a 54% increase in turnover for the same period. This snippet of news raised eyebrows this morning when it was revealed. So what's going on? Taxes are paid on profit not turnover. It paid lower taxes because it made lower profits. Last year it made 48 million British Pounds (BP) or ~$62 million U.S. dollars (USD) in profit -- this year it made only 24 million BP or ~$31 million USD so it paid 7 million BP (~$9 million USD) tax compared to 15 million BP (~$19 million USD). What is more interesting is WHY its profits were lower. Part of the reason is the way it pays its staff. Amazon UK Services is the division which runs the fulfillment centers which process, package and post deliveries to UK customers. It employs about 16,000 of the 24,000 people Amazon have in the UK. Each full-time employee gets given at least 1,000 BP (~$1,297 USD) worth of shares every year. They can't cash them in immediately -- they have to hold them for a period of between one and three years.
If Amazon's share price goes up in that time, those shares are worth more. Amazon's share price has indeed gone up over the past couple of years -- a lot. In fact, in the past two years the share price has nearly doubled, so 1,000 BP (~$1,297 USD) in shares granted in August 2015 are now worth nearly 2,000 BP (~$2,595 USD). Staff compensation goes up, compensation is an expense, expenses can be deducted from revenue -- so profits are lower and so are the taxes on those profits.
If Amazon's share price goes up in that time, those shares are worth more. Amazon's share price has indeed gone up over the past couple of years -- a lot. In fact, in the past two years the share price has nearly doubled, so 1,000 BP (~$1,297 USD) in shares granted in August 2015 are now worth nearly 2,000 BP (~$2,595 USD). Staff compensation goes up, compensation is an expense, expenses can be deducted from revenue -- so profits are lower and so are the taxes on those profits.
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Seriously? Use the very standard GBP if your keyboard doesn't have a £. Maybe if it doesn't you can go on amazon and spend some AD on a new one.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Wow, that even already works now that the UK is still in the EU?
It's beginning to work great. The UK pound is down by 20% in the last couple of yearsand will probably fall below the value of the dollar in the near future. Yen parity will take a little longer after Brexit however. Spending, earnings, everything is down and falling. Including effective tax reciepts. No economy, no money. No money, no taxes. Living the dream!
Do the social democracies like Germany or Norway invent amazing new technologies like the Internet or smartphones? No, that was the US,
Germany invented the first programmable computer, I'd like to see how your internet and smartphones would have worked without that. Also the smartcard, the first oscilloscope, SMS for cell phones, morphine, x-rays, etc. Norway's inventions include things like Object Oriented Programming.
Do your social democracies like the UK have the best health outcomes? No, that's the US - be chance of survival for infants, cancer, heart disease, HIV...
Despite the US spending nearly three times the amount per capita on health care as the UK (and even ignoring private money the US government spends almost 25% more than the UK on health care), the average life expectancy in the UK is 3 years longer than in the US, all cause mortality in the UK is lower than in the US, and specifically the UK has lower mortality rates for cancer and heart disease, and has half the infant mortality rate of the US. (I didn't immediately see figures for HIV)
Do you social democracies like France or Sweden perform huge amounts of medical R&D? No, that's the US, which provides half of the entire world's medical R&D.
Sweden spends more money per capita on medical research than the US. And in per-capita spending, the US is behind even such countries as Signapore and South Korea.