1. Amazon's tax avoidance
We estimated that Amazon's tax avoidance could have cost the UK economy around £575m in 2024.
Ethical Consumer has calculated that over half a billion pounds (£575,000,000) could have been lost to the UK public purse from the corporation tax avoidance of Amazon alone, just in 2024. This amount could have paid for:
- 1,916,667 additional winter fuel payments to help with rising fuel bills, or
- 23,504 additional nurses, or
- 17,012 new teachers.
Amazon is paying a fraction of the tax it owes
Amazon publishes limited information about its finances. Estimating the total amount of tax the company should have paid is therefore a difficult task. However, our figures suggest that Amazon should have paid around £575m in 2024.
In 2025, the online giant’s main UK division was instead handed £7.6 million in tax credits by HM Revenue and Customs, despite profits soaring. The credits were provided as part of a programme that rewards investment in UK infrastructure, which Amazon’s spending on fulfilment centres, corporate offices, machinery, equipment and data centres count towards.
Regarding the £7.6 million credit, Amazon told the Guardian: “the selected filings do not reflect the full scale of our business in the UK.” The company claims that it does raise public money through other taxes: it sent out a press release in 2025 in which it said that it paid more than £1.3 billion in direct taxes overall.
But this figure included employer national insurance contributions, business rates and the UK digital services tax, the latter of which it has passed on to third-party businesses and sellers that use its sites. It even included VAT - which is paid by consumers!
Any shop would have to pay some taxes like these: by replacing other independent stores (remember the high street?) Amazon is not increasing the overall amount paid to the public purse. It is instead taking business away from companies that would have paid some corporation tax on their profits as well.
Amazon is helping to build an economy where not everyone contributes to vital public services. Instead excess profits fund the vanity projects of its billionaire owner in a time of crisis such as space rocket rides for celebrities…
How does Amazon avoid paying so much tax?
Amazon has shunted much of its UK income to its subsidiary in Luxembourg, a known tax-haven, where it has had a ‘loss-making’ subsidiary and can therefore accrue tax credits.
The company has also in the past shunted its remaining profits through time: Amazon has invested in dominating the market, thereby monopolising industries while keeping its profits low. This way, it can defer paying taxes until another time.
However, the lack of transparency from Amazon on their profits in the UK makes it extremely difficult to document their tax avoiding tactics.
“Amazon are once again looking to confuse and conceal, with their Total Tax Contribution calculation,” said Paul Monaghan, chief executive of the Fair Tax Foundation about Amazon’s claim to have paid £1.3billion in taxes in 2025.
“A massive proportion of Amazon’s UK income is still being booked through Luxembourg,” he told the Guardian. “Surely the time has come for Amazon to come clean on exactly how much income, profit and corporation tax they pay in the UK and every other country.”
