Re: Not really Amazon's fault
With respect to UK companies, the Companies Act 2006 maintains shareholder primacy as a key principle of UK company law. i.e. that shareholders are the prime stakeholder in company governance. GAAP and IFRS further enshrine this principle. I'm not aware of specific US laws but that's a lack of knowledge on my part rather than a definite position and the accountancy standards mean that this is a default position anyway.
While corporate social responsibilities can be seen as an obligation required by society and are discretionary, the argument for paying more tax than is legally required by law is less clear - paying tax is not discretionary and the relevant governments have clear rules which the companies are following.
Given that the majority of Amazons tax on UK revenue is paid in Luxembourg (or at least part thereof considering some of it is now viewed as illegal state aid), this is a cost of being part of the EU, with similar benefits for Ireland from Apple etc.
In addition, choosing the most successful companies who comply with tax laws as proof or tax avoidance when many other companies use the same laws to return revenue to the UK and pay UK tax on it ignores the larger impact of current multinational tax regimes and instead tries to frame everything as UK only - hence the focus on US companies.
I'm aware of proposals to remove shareholder primacy, but as far as I am aware, nothing has become law.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
