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Amazon.co.uk paid £3.2m in UK tax last year, after making £7.7m in profit, according to accounts filed at Companies House today (15th May). Its turnover for the year to 31st December 2012 was put at £320m.
Both profits and turnover figures represented year-on-year rises, with profit up over 500% and turnover up 54%.
However, regulatory filings to US investors have given a clearer picture, according to the Guardian, revealing Amazon's UK revenues in 2012 were $6.5bn (£4.2bn).
The figure represents a rise of 20% year-on-year.
The overall sum Amazon has paid in corporation tax in the UK in the last decade has mounted to just £6m, the newspaper stated. The company can pay low tax in the UK because it routes sales via a subsidiary in Luxembourg.
Amazon came under heavy public criticism from the House of Commons public accounts select committee and media in the latter part of the year for low corporation tax payments in the UK. Last month, Francis and Keith Smith from Warwick and Kenilworth bookshops handed in a petition to Downing Street signed by over 260,000 people, protesting about Amazon¹s low corporation tax in the UK in comparison to its high sales.
The Companies House filings also stated that Amazon.co.uk encouraged "healthy" dialogue with its employees, having increased headcount by 38.6% over the course of the year due to its expansion and opening of fulfilment centres.
The document said: "The company ensures that all employees in the UK have the opportunity to contribute to aspects of Amazon's business. Part of that business is realised through free flow of ideas and exchange of viewpoints through periodic meetings with management and employees, email announcements and the intranet site.
"Management keeps employees aware of the financial and commercial progress of Amazon's business and expect employees to ask questions, suggest improvements and raise concerns. Such dialogue is celebrated an encouraged as it is vital to the existence of a healthy, enterprising and rewarding workplace."
However, workers union GMB recently held protests at warehouse sites across the UK giving Amazon a "corporate ASBO" for paying workers low wages (£6.20 an hour) despite their high profitability, as well as for poor working conditions.