£1bn earnings in Britain but Netflix pays just £4m tax

NETFLIX paid only around £4million in UK tax last year despite raking in £1billion from British subscribers.

The US streaming giant, which had its best year in 2020 as lockdowns kept millions at home glued to screens, saw after-tax profits from its UK business rise to £15.2million from around £9.8million the previous year.

The company also added 2million subscribers in Britain, taking its total to around 13million, according to The Guardian.

Netflix’s earnings from UK customers are funnelled through three separate British entities into an international business headquartered in the Netherlands but in January it said it would start declaring its UK revenues to HMRC.

Results reported by the firm also revealed the rapid expansion of its UK production operation, with the number of employees in Britain rising to 274 last year from 29 in 2017.

It follows the success of several UK-made Netflix productions including the steamy period drama Bridgerton, one of the platform’s most successful series.