Facebook is to pay millions more in tax after overhauling its structure, the company has confirmed.
The social network giant was the subject of controversy last year when it was revealed that it paid just £4,327 in corporation tax.
It has confirmed that under new arrangements, the majority of its advertising revenue initiated in Britain will now be taxed in the UK.
But there was criticism from Liberal Democrat economics spokeswoman Baroness Kramer, who said it showed the UK corporation tax system was "fundamentally broken".
She said: "Whether a company pays its fair share of tax on UK profits cannot be left up to whether they are feeling charitable or not."
Sales will no longer be routed through Ireland for Facebook's largest advertisers, but revenues from smaller business sales still will.
The changes should mean a higher UK corporation tax bill. They are due to come into effect in April so the first tax bill under the new structure will come in 2017.
How much more tax this means Facebook will pay has not been made clear.
It comes after search engine Google reached a controversial deal with tax authorities to pay £130m in taxes going back ten years. Critics say the sum is derisory.
Facebook's 2015 results posted earlier this year showed revenue climbed 44% to $17.93bn (£12.6bn) while net income rose 25% to $3.69bn (£2.59bn).
Founder Mark Zuckerberg has bee named the sixth richest person in the world in Forbes' annual billionaire's list - worth $44.6bn (£31.9bn).
Facebook said: "On Monday we will start notifying large UK customers that from the start of April they will receive invoices from Facebook UK and not Facebook Ireland.
"What this means in practice is that UK sales made directly by our UK team will be booked in the UK, not Ireland. Facebook UK will then record the revenue from these sales.
"In light of changes to tax law in the UK, we felt this change would provide transparency to Facebook's operations in the UK."
HM Revenue & Customs said: "We do not comment on individual taxpayers. But HMRC ensures that all multinationals pay the tax due under UK law and we do not settle for a penny less.
"We will closely examine any business's structure on behalf of the British public to make absolutely sure they pay all the tax due to the UK."
0 komentar: