Amazon pays mere 2.4 million pounds tax on 4.3 billion pounds sales

Amazon's UK subsidiary has paid 2.4 million pounds as corporate tax as it earned sales worth 4.3 billion pounds last year.

Amazon's tax contribution is relatively low compared to its sale profits which it earns not only from its UK subsidiary but also via a Luxembourg affiliate, the BBC reports.

Dubbing Amazon's tax payments as 'pathetic', Labour MP Nick Smith has said that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) must check the company's tax arrangements meticulously.

However, Amazon insists that it pays all taxes imposed on them in all its jurisdictions.

According to the report, Amazon received a 2.5 million pounds aid from the Scottish government last year to expand its warehouse operations in Dunfermline and Gourock, even as its UK firm classifies itself as a service provider to its Luxembourg business, Amazon EU Sarl, in order to reduce its tax bill.

The report further said that Google and Starbucks are also under the scanner for avoiding taxes in UK.

A Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming said that the tax contribution figures promptly declare that the existing tax rules fail to tackle the problem of companies garnering their profits in tax refuges, adding that the UK government is required to find out means to handle the tax implications of e-commerce.