Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has revealed that its UK corporation tax bill almost halved despite increased revenues and profits.
The US company posted impressive results for the most recent quarter with a profit of $2.5 billion (£1.9 billion).
Pre-tax profits for the UK business tripled from £24 million in 2016 to £72 million in 2017.
A spokesperson from Amazon UK said: “We pay all taxes required in the UK and every country where we operate.”
“Corporation tax is based on profits, not revenues, and our profits have remained low given retail is a highly competitive, low-margin business and our continued heavy investment,” the spokesperson added.
“We’ve invested over £9.3 billion in the UK since 2010 including last year opening a new head office in London alongside development centres in Cambridge and London. This year we plan to create 2,500 permanent jobs across the country in research and development, our head office, customer service and fulfilment centres, to bring our total workforce in the UK to over 27,500.”
The Government has promised to begin targeting tech giants including Amazon, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Apple. The government plans to start taxing UK revenues of businesses, instead of their profits.
A Government paper released in March said: “The Government’s view is that the tax system has not kept pace with these changes and that action is needed. The current misalignment between where digital businesses are taxed and where they create value threatens to undermine the fairness, sustainability and public acceptability of the corporate tax system.”
In 2015, the tech giant said it would stop diverting sales and profits away from the UK using controversial corporate tax structures.
Amazon has lost the race to become the first trillion-dollar-company after Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) hit the mark on Thursday.