Facebook trends on Facebook for not paying tax
£371 million in revenue and £0 in tax - no wonder people are sharing the story
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Facebook’s trending box highlights the stories that the site's users are most interested in and this morning one bit of news stood out: the fact that Facebook itself paid exactly zero in UK corporation tax last year.
We would laugh and say that the company was ‘hoist by their own petard’ apart from a) who actually says that, b) is it ‘hoisted’? and c) it won’t make any difference.
Last year Facebook’s UK operation made an estimated £371 million in revenue and it paid out an extra £72.5 million to its employees here in shares (that works out at around £350,000 per head if they held on to them) but the company is never going to pay extra tax until the government closes up the various loop-holes and avoidance schemes that let it get away with nothing.
In fact, Facebook did actually pay some corporation tax last year but the piddling £3,169 they contributed (yes, that’s three thousand one hundred and sixty nine pounds) was offset by the tens of thousands of tax credits they received from the Treasury.
So: what would you like to see trending on Facebook instead?
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments