Amazon pressed to be more transparent about tax

Amazon is under pressure from investors to be more transparent about how and where it pays tax around the world. A proposed resolution [PDF] seen over the weekend by the Financial Times has called for the megacorp to publish a transparency report according to the guidelines defined by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) tax …

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Their tax payments are transparent

So transparent you can't even see them

[Falmari]

Administrative expenses

“In its last set of UK profit and loss accounts [PDF], Amazon reported a tax payment of £9.2m (once £9.1m of deferred tax had been applied) on profits of £127.8m for the year ended 31 December 2020. Turnover stood at £4.8bn.”

Wow that is some thin profit margin! That’s not quite 2.7% before tax, hardly seems worth the effort.

But why is the profit margin so low? Looking at the linked Companies House document it seems Amazon are very inefficient. While they had a turnover of £4.8bn it seems £4.7bn was eaten up by “Administrative expenses”.

No wonder their profit margin is so low, its not because they are avoiding taxes it is because of inefficient administration. ;)

[DevOpsTimothyC]

Re: Administrative expenses

Most of those Administrative expenses are probably licencing fees for being able to use the Amazon / AWS names and brands.

If the UK capped how much profits could be offshored to tax havens by that little loop hole then we wouldn't need the NI rise (or many of the other tax increases)

[Anonymous Coward]

Amazon spokesweasel: "By requesting additional reporting with specific types of disclosures relating to tax as mandated by GRI 207, the Proposal extends into subject matter that would not be appropriate for direct shareholder oversight."

which totally ignores...

"Investors trying to take Amazon to task include asset managers Nordea, Royal London and some large European and US pension funds"

So investors are asking for it, GRI are asking for it but... la la la la la la la la... Alexa can't hear you...

[Cederic]

not be appropriate

I find it amusing that the company believes its tax affairs would not be appropriate for shareholder oversight.

Perhaps the board need reminding that they are merely employees, and that the company belongs to its shareholders.