You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Outspoken MP Margaret Hodge has said customers should not use Amazon after it emerged that the company paid £4.2m in tax last year, even though it sold goods worth more than £4.3b.
Hodge, chair of the public accounts committee, told the Guardian that she no longer used Amazon.
"It is an outrage and Amazon should pay their fair share of tax," she told the newspaper. "They are making money out of not paying taxes. I no longer use Amazon. We should shop elsewhere. What we demonstrated with Starbucks is the power of the consumer voice."
The Labour MP also accused the online retailer of “damaging British jobs”, but Amazon said it paid all the applicable taxes in every jurisdiction it operated within.
Hodge said: "If you are an Amazon user you get endless emails saying Amazon.co.uk. You then order your goods and you get them delivered by the Royal Mail in parcels stamped with the Queen's head, and they then pretend it's nothing to do with business in the UK.
“They are damaging British jobs.
“If you are a small bookshop in the high street you can never compete with their prices, because you pay taxes. Even for John Lewis their future is also threatened because they pay their taxes."
A spokesperson for Amazon told the Guardian: "Amazon pays all applicable taxes in every jurisdiction that it operates within. Amazon EU serves tens of millions of customers and sellers throughout Europe from multiple consumer websites in a number of languages dispatching products to all 28 countries in the EU. We have a single European headquarters in Luxembourg with hundreds of employees to manage this complex operation."
Amazon's British business had its accounts published today (9th May) at Companies House.