Sunday, May 28, 2023
Germany Latest News
  • Sports
  • USA
  • Asia
  • Health
  • Life Style
  • Tech
  • Science
  • Latin America
  • Africa
  • Europe
No Result
View All Result
Germany Latest News

HMRC accused of ‘hypocrisy’ over Amazon deal

by The Editor
October 24, 2017
in Tech
0
HMRC accused of ‘hypocrisy’ over Amazon deal

HMRC has been accused of "blatant hypocrisy" after signing a deal with Amazon, leaving a British company to go out of business.

Salford-based cloud services provider DataCentred went into administration in August after losing a contract with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs that provided 85% of its revenue.

Online technology magazine The Register reported that despite a government pledge to award contracts to small and medium-sized enterprises, the small British business was replaced at HMRC by international cloud giant Amazon Web Services.

Just moved all my services away from Datacentred, who were a great supplier. Thanks HMRC for making life of small businesses harder!

— Bruno Girin (@brunogirin) October 24, 2017

DataCentred customer Bruno Girin told Twitter: "Just moved all my services away from Datacentred, who were a great supplier. Thanks HMRC for making life of small businesses harder!"

Although Sky News was unable to reach DataCentred for comment, the company's Twitter account responded to Mr Girin's tweet with its own, saying "Thanks Bruno!" and including an emoji love heart.

Margaret Hodge MP, the former chair of parliament's public accounts committee, told Sky News: "This is a clear case of government saying one thing yet doing another.

"They say they want to support small businesses but they give the contacts to the big boys and let small businesses go bust.

"They say they want to be tough on tax avoidance but they use our money to give contracts to some of the world's biggest and most immoral tax avoiders.

"Surely this is blatant hypocrisy," she added.

Video:EU Commissioner: Amazon tax deal was illegal

Amazon has regularly been criticised for its tax avoidance activities, with the EU's competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager ordering it to pay back taxes this month after finding it had benefited from an illegal sweetheart deal with Luxembourg.

In the UK, the company paid just £7.4m in corporation tax, which is a tax on profits, in 2016 despite sales of £1.4bn that year – although it says it works in a very low-margin and competitive environment.

A spokesperson for Amazon stated: "We pay all taxes required in the UK and every country where we operate. Corporation tax is based on profits, not revenues, and our profits have remained low given retail is a highly-competitive, low margin business and our continued heavy investment."

"We believe that Amazon did not receive any special treatment from Luxembourg and that we paid tax in full accordance with both Luxembourg and international tax law," they added.

HMRC told Sky News that it had "been in discussions about our longer-term plans for cloud provision and what's in the best interests of our customers".

"Hyperscale cloud technology is newly available in the UK and the larger cloud capability offers more resilient services at a significantly lower cost to the taxpayer," the spokesperson added.

The tax office said that it made its procurement decisions through "a fair and open process, and in line with Civil Service rules. Normal financial and tax compliance checks will be undertaken as part of this".

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Original Article

Sky News

Related posts

Europe pitches ‘AI Pact’ to curtail the booming tech’s risks

Europe pitches ‘AI Pact’ to curtail the booming tech’s risks

May 27, 2023
Would artificial intelligence impact information access?

Would artificial intelligence impact information access?

February 7, 2023

HMRC has been accused of "blatant hypocrisy" after signing a deal with Amazon, leaving a British company to go out of business.

Salford-based cloud services provider DataCentred went into administration in August after losing a contract with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs that provided 85% of its revenue.

Online technology magazine The Register reported that despite a government pledge to award contracts to small and medium-sized enterprises, the small British business was replaced at HMRC by international cloud giant Amazon Web Services.

Just moved all my services away from Datacentred, who were a great supplier. Thanks HMRC for making life of small businesses harder!

— Bruno Girin (@brunogirin) October 24, 2017

DataCentred customer Bruno Girin told Twitter: "Just moved all my services away from Datacentred, who were a great supplier. Thanks HMRC for making life of small businesses harder!"

Although Sky News was unable to reach DataCentred for comment, the company's Twitter account responded to Mr Girin's tweet with its own, saying "Thanks Bruno!" and including an emoji love heart.

Margaret Hodge MP, the former chair of parliament's public accounts committee, told Sky News: "This is a clear case of government saying one thing yet doing another.

"They say they want to support small businesses but they give the contacts to the big boys and let small businesses go bust.

"They say they want to be tough on tax avoidance but they use our money to give contracts to some of the world's biggest and most immoral tax avoiders.

"Surely this is blatant hypocrisy," she added.

Video:EU Commissioner: Amazon tax deal was illegal

Amazon has regularly been criticised for its tax avoidance activities, with the EU's competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager ordering it to pay back taxes this month after finding it had benefited from an illegal sweetheart deal with Luxembourg.

In the UK, the company paid just £7.4m in corporation tax, which is a tax on profits, in 2016 despite sales of £1.4bn that year – although it says it works in a very low-margin and competitive environment.

A spokesperson for Amazon stated: "We pay all taxes required in the UK and every country where we operate. Corporation tax is based on profits, not revenues, and our profits have remained low given retail is a highly-competitive, low margin business and our continued heavy investment."

"We believe that Amazon did not receive any special treatment from Luxembourg and that we paid tax in full accordance with both Luxembourg and international tax law," they added.

HMRC told Sky News that it had "been in discussions about our longer-term plans for cloud provision and what's in the best interests of our customers".

"Hyperscale cloud technology is newly available in the UK and the larger cloud capability offers more resilient services at a significantly lower cost to the taxpayer," the spokesperson added.

The tax office said that it made its procurement decisions through "a fair and open process, and in line with Civil Service rules. Normal financial and tax compliance checks will be undertaken as part of this".

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Original Article

Sky News

Previous Post

‘No reason why’ England cannot beat Australia – even without ‘bonkers’ Ben Stokes, says Jonny Bairstow

Next Post

Facebook translates ‘good morning’ into ‘attack them’, leading to arrest

Next Post
Facebook translates ‘good morning’ into ‘attack them’, leading to arrest

Facebook translates ‘good morning’ into ‘attack them’, leading to arrest

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

RECOMMENDED NEWS

Common antibiotic significantly reduces child deaths across Africa

Common antibiotic significantly reduces child deaths across Africa

5 years ago
AT&T fined $5.25M over 911 outage that dropped 15,000 calls to emergency services     – CNET

AT&T fined $5.25M over 911 outage that dropped 15,000 calls to emergency services – CNET

5 years ago
Danube escape: Budapest’s Margaret Island

Danube escape: Budapest’s Margaret Island

4 years ago
Epidemic of Opioid Abuse Is Top Health News of 2017

Epidemic of Opioid Abuse Is Top Health News of 2017

5 years ago

FOLLOW US

  • 123 Followers
  • 87.2k Followers
  • 189k Subscribers

BROWSE BY CATEGORIES

  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Health
  • latest news
  • Latin America
  • Life Style
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Tech
  • Uncategorized
  • USA

BROWSE BY TOPICS

2018 League Bali United Beijing BlackBerry Brazil Broja Budget Travel Bundesliga California Champions League Chelsea China Chopper Bike Coronavirus COVID COVID-19 Crime Doctor Terawan EU France French German Istana Negara Italy Kazakhstan Market Stories Mexico National Exam Nigeria Omicron Pakistan Police protests Qatar Ronaldo Russia Smart Voting Sweden TikTok Trump UK Ukraine US vaccine Visit Bali
No Result
View All Result

Recent Posts

  • Man indicted on murder charge in rapper Takeoff’s shooting death
  • Vinicius Jr. case mirrors Spain’s racism ‘problem’
  • European pediatricians warn of impending medication shortage
  • Bola Tinubu inauguration: The five tests awaiting Nigeria’s new president
  • Asiana Airlines: Passenger arrested for opening plane door during South Korea flight

Categories

  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Health
  • latest news
  • Latin America
  • Life Style
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Tech
  • Uncategorized
  • USA

Tags

2018 League Bali United Beijing BlackBerry Brazil Broja Budget Travel Bundesliga California Champions League Chelsea China Chopper Bike Coronavirus COVID COVID-19 Crime Doctor Terawan EU France French German Istana Negara Italy Kazakhstan Market Stories Mexico National Exam Nigeria Omicron Pakistan Police protests Qatar Ronaldo Russia Smart Voting Sweden TikTok Trump UK Ukraine US vaccine Visit Bali
Germany’s slipped into recession and everyone should be worried
latest news

Germany’s slipped into recession and everyone should be worried

by The Editor
May 27, 2023
0

FRANKFURT ― Not so long ago, Germany was Europe's powerhouse: wealthy, booming, politically strong. But the mighty have fallen. And...

Read more

Recent News

  • Man indicted on murder charge in rapper Takeoff’s shooting death
  • Vinicius Jr. case mirrors Spain’s racism ‘problem’
  • European pediatricians warn of impending medication shortage

Category

  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Health
  • latest news
  • Latin America
  • Life Style
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Tech
  • Uncategorized
  • USA

Recent News

Man indicted on murder charge in rapper Takeoff’s shooting death

Man indicted on murder charge in rapper Takeoff’s shooting death

May 27, 2023
Vinicius Jr. case mirrors Spain’s racism ‘problem’

Vinicius Jr. case mirrors Spain’s racism ‘problem’

May 27, 2023
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Sports
  • USA
  • Asia
  • Health
  • Life Style
  • Tech
  • Science
  • Latin America
  • Africa
  • Europe

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.