Tech giants pay ‘piffling’ in tax

MSP BLASTS FIRMS OVER HMRC BILLS

EBAY and Netflix paid £1.9million in UK tax between them last year, it has emerged.

They have millions of British customers but the billion-pound US firms’ HMRC tax bills have been branded “piffling”.

Scottish Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: “If ordinary people have to pay their taxes then it’s an outrage that global giants get away with paying a piffling amount while public services are crying

out for investment.” Despite telling US authorities they registered £1billion of revenue in the UK in 2016, eBay’s UK business paid £1.6million tax on £7.6million profit and £200million revenue.

Figures reported to the US taxman appear to include commission on UK eBay sales. But these are not included in the revenue reported by their UK arm, which is said to come from providing advertising to their Swiss entity.

Netflix’s latest filings with Companies House show their UK tax bill fell to £270,000 last year.

The streaming service, used by 6.5million Brits, channel UK revenue through their Hollandbased parent company.

The UK Government have tried to crack down on global giants diverting profits overseas with the introduction of the so-called “Google tax”.