[News] Facebook - doing their bit for UK plc

[Bozza]

Social network giant Facebook paid just £4,327 ($6,643) in corporation tax in 2014, its latest UK results show.

Its most recent Companies House filing shows the company as making a pre-tax loss of £28.5m last year, but the firm also paid its 362 UK staff a total of £35.4m in share bonuses. The share bonuses amount to £96,000 on average per UK Facebook employee.

It means Facebook's UK corporation tax bill was less than the tax the average UK employee paid on their salary. The average UK salary is £26,500 on which employees pay a total of £5,392.80 in income tax and national insurance contributions.

In January, Facebook reported global fourth-quarter profits of $701m (£462m), a 34% increase on the same period a year earlier. Total profits for the year were $2.9bn, almost double its profit for 2013.

(In what is not the greatest shock of all time) a spokesperson for Facebook said: "We are compliant with UK tax law, and in fact in all countries where we have operations and offices. We continue to grow our business activities in the UK."

More > http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34504474

 

[KZNSeagull]

Well at least they made a profit unlike most of these giant internet goons. Does the company that owns Candy Crush etc pay any tax in the UK (I doubt it)? I am sure I read somewhere that they are now one of the biggest companies in the world.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Legal? Yes. Moral? Absolutely not.

 

[beorhthelm]

question for the accountants (and to illustrate a point), how much income tax, NI and captial gains tax will be paid on the staff pay and bonues?

 

[Simster]

question for the accountants (and to illustrate a point), how much income tax, NI and captial gains tax will be paid on the staff pay and bonues?

And what a proper shìt point it is.


The point being, it's ok for a firm not to pay it's dues because the people who work for that firm pay their income tax. Why do you have to suck up to big business and the worst excesses of capitalism with these feeble instances of defending the indefensible? The fact is, if Facebook really was only making £5,000 in Britain after a presence of over a decade, they'd have sold up or cut back. So let's cut the bullshit and get major markets to agree on a minimal level of corporation tax payable.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Well at least they made a profit unlike most of these giant internet goons. Does the company that owns Candy Crush etc pay any tax in the UK (I doubt it)? I am sure I read somewhere that they are now one of the biggest companies in the world.

King is based in London, listed in NY

 

[beorhthelm]

And what a proper shìt point it is.


The point being, it's ok for a firm not to pay it's dues because the people who work for that firm pay their income tax.

or you missed the point? they booked a tiny profit - no doubt from clever accountancy - but their declared profit and tax isn't the full story. that bonus would have been taxed, and potentially at a greater rate than if they had not booked it in as an expense (to incur losses to offset the profits). there is an obsession on the amount a company pays directly in corporation tax and ignoring many other ways a company will be contributing to tax. to highlight this isn't to suck up to business but to hopefully help understand. set a standard international tax if you want, they will still book loses or smaller profits that one may think they make and avoid it that way.

 

[Simster]

or you missed the point? they booked a tiny profit - no doubt from clever accountancy - but their declared profit and tax isn't the full story. that bonus would have been taxed, and potentially at a greater rate than if they had not booked it in as an expense (to incur losses to offset the profits). there is an obsession on the amount a company pays directly in corporation tax and ignoring many other ways a company will be contributing to tax. to highlight this isn't to suck up to business but to hopefully help understand. .

In what way did I miss your point?

"there is an obsession on the amount a company pays directly in corporation tax"

Er, no there isn't. There is an incredulity that multi-billion dollar corporations see fit to fiddle their accounts to such extremes, that they end up paying absolutely f*ck all in corporation tax. What exactly are you "highlighting"? You have form for sucking up to capitalist excesses though. Only last week you were informing everyone that 5p per plastic bag was a tax on convenience, based on nothing but incorrect "facts".

 

[KZNSeagull]

King is based in London, listed in NY

Not sure it is anymore. They opened an office in Ireland before they floated and the Sunday Times reckons they are registered in Malta for tax purposes. They paid $147m in corporation tax in 2013, but not sure where.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Please help support Nsc by buying from Amazon.

How much corporation tax has Amazon paid to the UK?

 

[mikeyjh]

Not sure it is anymore. They opened an office in Ireland before they floated and the Sunday Times reckons they are registered in Malta for tax purposes. They paid $147m in corporation tax in 2013, but not sure where.

I thought it was based in Dublin?

 

[GOM]

In what way did I miss your point?

"there is an obsession on the amount a company pays directly in corporation tax"

Er, no there isn't. There is an incredulity that multi-billion dollar corporations see fit to fiddle their accounts to such extremes, that they end up paying absolutely f*ck all in corporation tax. What exactly are you "highlighting"? You have form for sucking up to capitalist excesses though. Only last week you were informing everyone that 5p per plastic bag was a tax on convenience, based on nothing but incorrect "facts".

On the bonus' of 35.4m paid income tax of 40% would have been paid. Money to the HMRC. Had they declared that as profit instead corp tax would have been paid at a lower rate, so less money to HMRC. They did us a favour paying a bonus instead of making a bigger profit.

Awaiting corrections by those that know.

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

As much as I'm angered by the tax dodgers, they have not broken any laws so my anger is directed at our law makers who seem incapable of drawing up regulations that can't be given the swerve by lawyered up and greedy multinationals.

 

[beorhthelm]

As much as I'm angered by the tax dodgers, they have not broken any laws so my anger is directed at our law makers who seem incapable of drawing up regulations that can't be given the swerve by lawyered up and greedy multinationals.

this could be the answer. decades of regulations and tax law across countries and political parties seem to conspire to make more write offs, exceptions, allowances etc, than ways of making companies pay tax. but people would rather get all indignant about the low amount the companies pay rather than the archaic tax systems.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

question for the accountants (and to illustrate a point), how much income tax, NI and captial gains tax will be paid on the staff pay and bonues?

Can this work the other way? Ie if I work for a company which actually pays it's corporation tax can I just tell the tax man to do one as someone somewhere is paying some tax?

 

[Silkster365]

question for the accountants (and to illustrate a point), how much income tax, NI and captial gains tax will be paid on the staff pay and bonues?

This.

The Press very conveniently over look the fact that far more tax will have made
It's way into the UK economy through structuring things this way.

Lefties will no doubt focus on the corporation tax figures while clasping their hands over their ears and 'La La La' ing over any of the other facts

 

[Igzilla]

As much as I'm angered by the tax dodgers, they have not broken any laws so my anger is directed at our law makers who seem incapable of drawing up regulations that can't be given the swerve by lawyered up and greedy multinationals.

As much as I'm cross with Facebook, it's not their fault, per se. It's a symptom of capitalism (absurdly it's better for a company not to make any money than to be seen as profitable e.g. Starbucks) and the Byzantine, labyrinthine tax laws that exist, not only here, but globally.

 

[Springal]

On the bonus' of 35.4m paid income tax of 40% would have been paid. Money to the HMRC. Had they declared that as profit instead corp tax would have been paid at a lower rate, so less money to HMRC. They did us a favour paying a bonus instead of making a bigger profit.

Awaiting corrections by those that know.

This is the way I understood it. But the press wouldn't have a good story from that would they ?

 

[French Seagull]

It is only fair they pay the correct tax in the country they make the profit in, not move it to where they pay the least tax, morally its wrong.

I hope one day it will be sorted out, the uk needs this income. Interesting quote "Labour will set out our plan for tackling the deficit not through punishing the most vulnerable and decimating our public services but by ending the unfair tax cuts to the wealthy, tackling tax evasion and investing for growth," Perhaps they should add making companies pay their fair share - because someone has to pay!

 

[beorhthelm]

It is only fair they pay the correct tax in the country they make the profit in, not move it to where they pay the least tax, morally its wrong.

so, you wouldnt want those profits made companies abroad to be brought into the UK to be taxed here, rather it should be taxed there? say HSBC, Standard Chartered, or SAB, selling billions overseas and pay tax here.

the problem in all of this is that bit in the middle, where the country they make the profit is. does Facebook make a profit in UK? in the US, in Germany, Brazil, etc? i know they shift things around to their benefit, but assuming they didnt exactly where do we think a multinational makes its profit. not revenue or sales, but the bit after everything is paid for. does Apple make its profit in the US, where all the designers and programmers work, or in China where they manufacture, or in the location where the product is sold? we cant answer that easily for a physical product, how difficult is it for web services viewed in UK, hosted out of Ireland, owned and created by company in US. dont have the answer, only showing its complex.