Amazon sitting on $9 billion after record Christmas

Amazon is expected to to announce after its best Christmas takings in years, that its coffers have swollen to an impressive $9 (£5.7) billion, which represents an impressive increase since September, when Amazon was sitting on a more modest total around $5.2 (£3.3) billion.

It's thought that this uptake in sales and revenue was a major factor in easing along the demise of British high street retailers like Jessops and HMV – even though Amazon only makes 10 per cent of its revenue here in the UK. As the Guardian points out though, this is still a sizable figure and when it comes to tax avoidance on that scale, MPs have been taking notice.

Recently there's been a fair bit of outcry from the political and public sector, with average citizens announcing their intention to boycott certain companies until they pay their “fair share” of taxes. Amazon clearly hasn't been affected however.

But of course it's just one of many tax avoiding corporations that pay as much as the average millionaire, despite billions in revenue over the past few years. Google, Apple, Starbucks and many many more, all funnel their profits through European nations that charge them very little – thereby garnering their business. It's a smart loophole, but one that looks to be tightening with increased attention.

Indeed the very reason that companies like Amazon are able to create such huge stockpiles of liquid currency is mostly because it doesn't have to pay tax on it.

KitGuru Says: Figuring this one out is way over my head, so I won't be chiming in here. Any tax experts out there want to explain how we can fix this?

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