Saturday, November 17, 2012

Dixons Retail chief Sebastian James backs Amazon tax warnings

The chief executive of Dixons Retail has backed warnings that UK retailers are at risk of collapse if the Government does not act to force foreign companies to pay their share of tax.

Amazon packaging
Amazon has warehouses in the UK and employs 15,000 people but diverts its UK sales to Luxembourg Photo: Alamy
Sebastian James said he agreed with the views of John Lewis boss Andy Street who warned on Wednesday that rivals such as Amazon would be able to use their tax position to “out-invest” and “out-trade” UK companies.
Dixons has 1,200 stores, including PC World and Currys, and Amazon is a major rival.
Writing on Twitter, Mr James said: “I agree with Andy Street: retailers making profits in the UK should pay tax in the UK.”
The comments from the British retail bosses come after Amazon, Google and Starbucks appeared in front of MPs in the Public Accounts Committee.
Amazon has warehouses in the UK and employs 15,000 people but diverts its UK sales to Luxembourg.
The company, which is owned by US retailer Walmart, said it paid £163m in corporation tax last year and £886m over the past five years.
Business secretary Vince Cable said yesterday that the Government could take action to tackle the problem in the Autumn Statement.
"Some of them seem to be avoiding tax systematically and this is deeply angering tens of thousands of British companies who do pay their tax properly, so we have to get to grips with it," he said. 

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