Here is one of those bugbears which can make you go absolutely crazy and demand real justice. It's one of the most loved internet shopping sites in the world, Amazon. In the last few days it has come to be found of over four billion pounds of sales, the actual tax paid by Amazon was about 0.1 %, and it received more in the way of UK government grants than it paid in tax. This is one of the biggest growing companies in the world and they screw over the Taxman. Now when it is a run of the mill ordinary individual who manages to get away without paying a little tax, you might think well good for them. As long as this is not an everyday thing they do, as long as it is proportionate. But celebrities, rock stars, comedians, footballers, actors who do it, well they deserve the full weight of the law against them. In a similar sense the same should happen with Amazon. But this isn't new news, it had been common knowledge for some time, but the enormous scale of tax avoidance they are using means this is not just despicable, it is a wanton criminal act.
It is tax which pays for the services to the country. Tax pays for hospitals, fire brigades, doctors, nurses, police, local amenities, such as parks and play grounds for children. Tax helps pay for Universities, it is through tax the jobless and disabled get welfare benefits given to them and because of tax pensioners have a state retirement pension. So when I purchase goods of Amazon I am effectively getting a slightly cheaper item but taken into account the tax which is not being paid and hence the profits Amazon is making, I am losing out. The country is losing out, every child, man, woman who uses a service which has been paid by taxpayers money loses out. Amazon are not just screwing the tax-man they are defecating on every ordinary individual who buys goods from them. By getting grants from the government higher than the tax they pay Amazon is in effect participating in legalised immoral theft. So Amazon, do you think the public will let you get away with it?
This is a pertinent question. Personally since December 2012, I have not purchased a single item of Amazon. I've checked over my last year's worth of bank statements, as I didn't have much to do at the time, and there nearly every month there had been some kind of purchase through Amazon. In the last year these purchases were over a thousand pounds. I am just one individual. Now if this were to be multiplied by a few more individuals Amazon would find it does not pay to shit at the same table you eat from, which they now do everyday. The last book I bought I got through a high street shop a couple of weeks ago. Now I intend to use high street shops or UK proper tax paying businesses for any purchase I'd of normally bought through Amazon.
My advice. Don't just sit there and click on their web site, get up, go out, and spend your money somewhere else. It might cost a couple of quid more, but in the whole scheme of things it will be money spent to support your own country, not to furnish the pockets of an organization which allegedly is based in Luxembourg.
