Sunday 18 January 2015

Amazon EU Sarl paid too little tax, EU competition regulator says

Title: Amazon EU Sarl paid too little tax, EU competition regulator says


Summary:
Amazon’s main European trading company that accounts for a fifth of the online retailers’ worldwide sales has been paying too little tax for years. This article goes on to explain Amazon’s troubled past with tax and how they have been struggling to sort it out.

Facts/Phrases:
Ø  Amazon EU Sarl, the group’s Luxembourg trading hub sales of €13.6bn (£10.3bn) in 2013, had been paying inflated royalty fees to another Amazon entity.
Ø  AEHT made profits of €1.93bn in the seven years from 2007 to 2013 after receiving €3.31bn from other Amazon companies, according to a Guardian analysis of its accounts. At the end of that period Amazon EU Sarl still owed AEHT €2.1bn.
Ø  Among the most controversial aspects of Amazon’s 2003 tax ruling, the commission’s decision paper suggested was an effective cap on the amount that could be earned by Amazon EU Sarl, being 0.55% of turnover. The commission claimed this provided an “effective override”, replacing a more conventional basis on which to calculate the proper value of royalties.

Opinion:

In my opinion, this article is about how new and digital media has become so advance it’s assisted in tax evasion in some sense.

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