Amazon, Google and Apple won't need to pay tax, despite goverment threats
It’s been a busy week for technology companies explaining their tax situations.
The week started off with news that a £150m rural mobile contract had been awarded to Arqiva, the firm that in January came under the spotlight for alleged dodgy tax practices. On Tuesday, news broke of another government contract for Arqiva in the form of providing the infrastructure to support the rollout of free WiFi across Camden. And Wednesday brought the third government deal in as many days for Arqiva, with news that it had also won the contract to provide free WiFi across Hammersmith and Fulham.
By Thursday, attention had shifted to some larger names in the tech industry. The day began with complaints over Amazon only paying £2.4m tax in the UK last year. This was despite making sales of £4.3bn and receiving £2.5m in government grants, so effectively Amazon cost the country £100,000 over 2012.
