facebook will pay less In Taxes in the U.okay. Than the average U.k. employee
In 2014, facebook spent a mere $6,643 on U.k. taxes—allegedly since the company is just not profitable there.
October 12, 2015
in the event you reside within the U.okay., there is a strong risk you pay more in taxes than fb does. final yr, the social networking massive spent just over $6,600 on agency taxes within the U.ok., the place it has greater than 30 million customers and brings in $161 million in gross sales, in line with Quartz. the average U.ok. employee, however, can pay nearly $8,300 in taxes.
fb claims that, despite bringing in profits of $701 million globally, it is not successful within the U.ok., which arguably explains its tax payments; taxes are paid on profits, now not revenue. In a statement to the BBC, a facebook spokesperson mentioned the corporate is “compliant with UK tax law, and in fact in all countries where we now have operations and places of work. We continue to grow our trade activities within the UK.”
but these tax numbers are indicative of why European officers are carefully examining the tax practices of tech corporations. Amazon, whose European headquarters are in Luxembourg, had a tax take care of the usa that antitrust regulators deemed unfair and mentioned was once allowing the corporate to underpay taxes; quickly after an investigation was once underway, Amazon opted to pay taxes in different European countries as neatly, in all probability to stave off further scrutiny. Apple is currently the target of a similar investigation, due to concerns that it is receiving tax breaks in ireland, the place its European operations are based.
facebook may be next, if its tax funds proceed in the identical vein. the company is already below fireplace in Europe for attainable violations of person privateness; just last week, the best court in Europe ruled that an agreement that allowed companies to transfer private information from Europe to the U.S. used to be not valid. for companies like fb and Google, this might spell trouble as it gives more energy to the authorities who have lengthy tried to protect the privacy of European citizens.
[via BBC]
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