Amazon tax optimization and the UK, and Luxembourg.

My Orchids in the Summer Lull

Amazon tax optimization and the UK, and Luxembourg.

Amazon doesn’t really pay much in UK tax. Because it pays its taxes in Luxembourg says this article. The European Commission thinks that Amazon doesn’t pay enough taxes in Luxembourg, and that it should pay an additional back-tax of € 250 million. That’s almost € 500 per resident in the country.  The Luxembourg government doesn’t deal with cheap popularity and said no: it even went to the European Court of Justice to enforce its own tax justice and protect Amazon from additional tax liabilities.

All that is very interesting Public Affairs work. At one moment you have to get out with those news. What is the best timing though? The summer lull, when hopefully not too many people are paying attention? But that can be bad if you stand out because you are the only news of the day. Then you get a spin like this one here and now. Or is it better on some other hectic day when there is a tsunami, an election, a tweet, or some other attention grabbing event. I vote for the second option: when the news are plenty, there is nothing is older than yesterday’s newspaper.

You’ll appreciate the picture and the caption in the Mirror's article: “Amazon offices in tax haven Luxembourg”. I thought that tax haven thing was over. My personal tax almost doubled on January 1^st. Yes, in the tax haven!