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> "Amazon’s revenues have soared under the pandemic while our high streets struggle, yet it continues to shift its profits to tax havens like Luxembourg to avoi
by shawabawa3 5y ago
> "Amazon’s revenues have soared under the pandemic while our high streets struggle, yet it continues to shift its profits to tax havens like Luxembourg to avoid paying its fair share of tax."
But it reported a 1.7B loss in Luxembourg. So where are the profits going? Reinvested in the business?
- saddlerustle 5y agoThere are no profits. Amazon loses money in europe
- nprateem 5y agoDream on
- Traster 5y agoOk, so when are they going to stop operating in the market then? They're consistently losing money they should just shut down right?
- Asdrubalini 5y agoNot necessarily, it depends on their strategy for the future.
- brainwad 5y agoThey need to operate AWS in Europe in order for AWS to be competetive - you can't run a cloud just in the US. It could be unprofitable indefinitely, but so long as the US business makes enough to cover the losses, it's fine. As for retail - generally their retail segments start out unprofitable but eventually turn a profit. Amazon is in it for the super-long game, they didn't make an overall profit for 20 years and Bezos is against paying dividends to investors when the money could be reinvested.
- saddlerustle 5y agoNo, they are making capital investments in order to make more money in the future. They still have huge opportunity to expand their operations in europe.
- me_me_me 5y agoIf I make 100m in profits and then hire an 'advisor' that will help me improve my business for 100m, who happens to be working out of tax haven and also works for company I own. My company made 0 profits and I have 100m in my tax haven accounts. Of course this is a hyperbole but you get the point.
- Reason077 5y agoAccording to Amazon Inc's 2020 10-K filing, Amazon's international subsidiaries paid almost $5bn in royalty fees back to the US parent company[1]. It's hard to make a profit in Europe after you pay all those hefty fees! [1] https://www.taxwatchuk.org/amazon-tax-structure/ https://www.taxwatchuk.org/amazon-tax-structure/
- nprateem 5y agoDon't Apple and Amazon etc use licencing to artificially put their subsidiaries in debt? E.g. Amazon Cayman Islands licences its branding etc to Amazon Luxumbourg which basically has to pay an exorbitant amount for it, enough so it's always in debt and therefore pays no tax. Of course, they're owned by the same company so money stays in the family but taxes are avoided.