In 2020, Amazon made sales worth €44bn in Europe. Yet, the company paid no corporation tax, including in the UK. This is despite seeing a huge surge in business during the coronavirus pandemic (35% of all online purchases made in the UK during the first lockdown were through Amazon), and at a time when the need for funding of public services like the NHS is clearer than ever before.
Our new research has calculated that, in 2021, up to half a billion pounds (£500,000,000) could have been lost to the UK public purse from the corporation tax avoidance of Amazon alone.
In other research Ethical Consumer found that Amazon secured more than £20 million of income from UK universities in 2021 alone, and that higher education has become more reliant on Amazon in the past three years, with 63% of universities increasing their purchasing with the company.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s monopolistic behaviour threatens small businesses trying to do better. Our guides below include more ethical options, so you can ensure you’re not supporting this arch tax avoider, while channelling your money to more ethical companies.