Boycotting Amazon - could you do it?

[cloughie]

Margaret Hodge?

She's not really likely to go after tax avoiders with a big stick is she?

Not unless she likes self inflicted pain.

Until Labour, or somebody, start really opposing the cultures of corporate greed, tax avoidance, and bank dominance of our financial and political world, nothing will change for the better.

Incidentally, in a non principled way, I would just buy as little as possible at amazon, especially if a decent deal can be had elsewhere.

...and why should the government spend their time chasing these giatns of industry when they can fleece the motorist, shoppers and anyone who puts a liitle by in savings, which they've paid tax on whilst it was earned, to find they pay tax again on any pittance of interest they are paid. But then some of us are all in it together, others are in the trough together!

[MrGongGong]

I

I also never buy and sell on ebay, though I use it regularly to check the prices other people are paying for the things I collect (notably classical music LPs).

I'm glad you don't
because if you did sell on ebay without declaring the earnings you would be committing serious fraud and "bankers mate" RM would be round to punish you for "immoral acts"

[MickyD]

... that's my boy!

I don't go to starbucks 'cos the coffee is rubbish.

In the few years I have left on this earth I am not going to deprive myself of the pleasure to be derived from using amazon. My 'individual 'boycott' is not a bean in a hill of beans. And of course the pleasure (knowing what baddies they are) is now doubled when they mis-price things so I can get the NIFC complete Chopin for £11 rather than £111...

Oh yes, Vints, that must have been one of the bargains of all time - and I have never stopped playing that wonderful set!

[Boilk]

I can't get my head around why the criticism isn't directed towards the law-makers rather than the companies. If the laws are as they are, can companies really be vilified for complying with them?

Couldn't agree more... it was laughable seeing those executives hauled before a Standards Committee (or whatever they were). It seems that witch hunts and mock trials are the done thing these days to appease the wrath of the people, which itself is calculatingly incited by the media - BBC included. Change the law and the companies that do business will have to comply. Until then, let's see ministers in the dock.

And is it much different in America (?) whose richest company - Apple - paid just 1.9% tax on non-US income last year, and has a huge stash of cash offshore! Mind you, better to spend it on R&D than hand it over to the US Govt, which would then have more to spend on unethical military intervention, as well as bail out Wall Street financial terrorism.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i could not possibly boycott Amazon my new Kindle Fire will not let me ....

[Sir Velo]

Interestingly, Margaret Hodge MP is a shareholder in Stemcor, a steel trading company set up by her father and now run by her brother. Stemcor generated revenues of more than £2.1bn in the UK in 2011, but paid just £163,000 in corporation tax. That's 0.01 percent tax on business generated in the UK, which is less than the tax paid by Amazon or Google.

Hodge claims that Stemcor pays 'every penny of tax that is owed'. Of course, Amazon, Starbucks and Google pay every penny of tax they owe. That isn't the question; the real question is how they, Stemcor and other multinational companies are able legitimately to reduce their tax burden to such a low level. As Am says, that is a matter for the legislators and not the companies.

I'm not suggesting you are, but one has to be careful not to equate "revenues" with "profits", and, in particular net profit, or actually to be pedantic, profits chargeable to corporation tax ("PCTCT"). To arrive at PCTCT, companies are allowed to offset capital allowances (i.e. depreciation of capital items), a certain amount of R&D, as well as all the ordinary cost of sales and overheads incurred in the day to day running of a business. Moreover, they are allowed to offset certain losses b/fwd from previous trading periods. For example, where a company is establishing itself in a new market, it may well expect to make losses for its first few years of trading. However, where HMRC has got itself in a pickle is allowing multinational companies to set intragroup transfer prices, which effectively allow them to move profits into more tax friendly regimes (e.g. Switzerland),without sufficiently assessing the fairness and transparency of these TPAs.

[Black Swan]

...and why should the government spend their time chasing these giatns of industry when they can fleece the motorist, shoppers and anyone who puts a liitle by in savings, which they've paid tax on whilst it was earned, to find they pay tax again on any pittance of interest they are paid. But then some of us are all in it together, others are in the trough together!

I agree totally it is reprehensible that Amazon, Starbucks, etc don't pay tax. But then the conduct of the Tory Government is also reprehensible as well and they give me not entertainment, other than moaning, just aggro.

John

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

it is not as if transfer pricing and tax optimisation are not old established practices

[Flosshilde]

And is it much different in America (?) whose richest company - Apple - paid just 1.9% tax on non-US income last year,

But did they pay USA tax on their USA income? which is the problem with Starbucks, Amazon et al. Starbucks tried to convince us that they had no profits in the UK, which suggests that they are completely incompetent or else they think we came down with the last shower.


As for boycotting Amazon: as I said in a previous thread on the topic, I hardly ever buy anything from them anyway; it's possible to find as good deals for the things I want elsewhere, & if I'm buying a non-fiction book I'd rather look at it first to make sure that it suits my needs. I do have a gift token that was a Christmas present last year, so I will use that. As for Starbucks, I wouldn't drink their dishwater if you paid me (perhaps that's what they do, & why they don't make any profits).

[MrGongGong]

I'm boycotting the Tories as far too many of them hide their money away overseas
but I doubt they will notice

(https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...URDFiZXc#gid=0)

[eighthobstruction]

But don't hold your breath ref blocking tax loop-holes....because if I am right the HMRC dept employed to find and evaluate these manners of evasion, consists of about 7 people....

[umslopogaas]

#32 MrGG, thanks, I didnt know that, but there's little danger I'll buy or sell anything on ebay, I like to buy, or sell, to real people I can actually meet. However, ebay is worth a visit to assess the going rates, and interest.

[MrGongGong]

#32 MrGG, thanks, I didnt know that, but there's little danger I'll buy or sell anything on ebay, I like to buy, or sell, to real people I can actually meet. However, ebay is worth a visit to assess the going rates, and interest.

This might be getting worse
I hope you have a business account

[Karafan]

Aah, I am afraid Amazon's strangulating tentacles have me in a deathly embrace.....and I have the bank statements to prove it. Oh, the shame of it all......

[EdgeleyRob]

No.