Amazon pays $16-mn tax in Germany, while making $11.9-bn sales

 

Internet retailer Amazon.com Inc's main German operating unit paid just euro 1.9 million ($16 million) in tax in 2014, despite the group recording $11.9 billion in sales to German customers last year, regulatory filings show.

Germany is Amazon's biggest market outside North America but until recently all sales and almost all profits were reported via lightly taxed Luxembourg companies.

Amazon's main German operating unit, Amazon.de GmbH, manages the German website and oversees deliveries but is funded by payments from the Luxembourg companies. Accounts filed in late April and only publicly available in recent weeks, show Amazon.de made a profit of just euro 32 million in 2014 and paid corporate income tax of euro 11.9 million.