Amazon paid more than £1.3billion in UK taxes last year after higher wage, property and business costs pushed up its bill.

AMAZON paid more than £1.3billion in UK taxes last year after higher wage, property and business costs pushed up its bill. The online giant said its tax contribution for 2025 rose by at least 20 per cent, up from more than £1billion the year before. The figure covers taxes Amazon pays directly — including corporation tax, business rates, employer National Insurance and digital services tax. Advertisement The increase is understood to have been driven partly by higher employer National Insurance costs, following a rate rise that came into force last April. Amazon also paid more in corporation tax and business rates. The company does not reveal how much it pays under each tax heading. Amazon previously paid no UK corporation tax in 2021 and 2022 because it benefited from the Government’s “super-deduction” investment tax break, introduced by former Chancellor Rishi Sunak. The company said the wider amount of tax it collected on behalf of the Government, including VAT paid by shoppers and National Insurance from workers, reached about £5billion, up from £4.7billion. But Dan Neidle, of Tax Policy Associates, said: “If they really want to be open they should publish a proper breakdown of the different taxes. This mixes together a bunch of taxes, so gives us no idea how much corporation tax they pay. Are they paying a fair amount? Or are they playing tricks? They don’t tell us.” Amazon employs around 75,000 people in the UK, making it one of the country’s ten biggest private employers. But Amazon is cutting jobs globally, with around 16,000 being axed, mainly in the US, as bosses try to reduce management layers. Advertisement UK revenues rose to more than £30billion last year. Amazon is investing £40billion here from 2025 to 2027. Axed BP boss speaks out BP’s ousted chairman has hit back after losing his job over alleged conduct and governance concerns. Albert Manifold said he “entirely” disputes BP’s version of events and claimed he was sacked “without warning and without explanation”. Mr Manifold, who joined in October from Irish building group CRH, said: “I won’t allow a false narrative to go unchallenged. Advertisement “I always worked to drive genuine change at BP – cutting costs, challenging excess and holding the organisation to higher standards.”

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