Amazon tax

[Roses]

You make valid points on more isolated communities. I can't help but think it will make them less well served in the long run. I am aware I am in a minority on this issue. However, on the main issue Amazon and the like should pay their fair share of tax, although not subsidise the high street as that would not be a level playing field.

I still don't buy the suggestion that it improves the environment. That's just bollocks.

You are entitled to your opinion, but like many others I am pleased to be able to buy goods on-line.

[Aruntraveller]

You are entitled to your opinion, but like many others I am pleased to be able to buy goods on-line.

Yes I am thank you. Glad you realise that.

[Nearly Sane]

You make valid points on more isolated communities. I can't help but think it will make them less well served in the long run. I am aware I am in a minority on this issue. However, on the main issue Amazon and the like should pay their fair share of tax, although not subsidise the high street as that would not be a level playing field.

I still don't buy the suggestion that it improves the environment. That's just bollocks.

I don know if it does, just that it's not obvious to me why multiple car journeys aren't likely to make it easily cost and environmentally effective.

[Rhiannon]

You make valid points on more isolated communities. I can't help but think it will make them less well served in the long run. I am aware I am in a minority on this issue. However, on the main issue Amazon and the like should pay their fair share of tax, although not subsidise the high street as that would not be a level playing field.

I still don't buy the suggestion that it improves the environment. That's just bollocks.

All high streets are dying. There needs to be a complete rethink as to what they are for - more leisure and community use, less retail. Isolated communities aren’t killed by Amazon, they are killed by cuts to bus services and poor internet and mobile networks.

It has to be better for the environment for someone to deliver my stuff en route to lots of other people rather than me drive a twenty miles plus round trip to buy stuff, surely? And actually that’ll be several trips because I can’t get everything in one town, if at all.

[jeremyp]

Did Hammond use the word 'subsidise'?

I don't know. The original story has gone it seems, but the net effect of a levy on specific companies is the same as a subsidy on other companies. This is why the E|U is very strict about governments subsidising companies under their jurisdiction, because it is effectively the same as if they taxed all of their competitors.

[jeremyp]

Well one issue not covered in this is the scourge of the Deliveroo van (other companies available). I am sick and tired of vans turning up every 4 minutes to deliver one small package to a neighbour. In what way is this cost effective? In what way does it impact on traffic density? In what way does it impact on the environment?

I know it's convenient for people to sit on their lard arses and order a new bulb for a fancy light. But really is that what we have descended to?

(PS I wrote and then deleted an expletive laden version of this last night after a couple of glasses of wine).

Still, if you all prefer Amazon over the High Street not much I can do about it. But it's wrong I tell you, wrong.

(And yes I have ordered stuff from Amazon in the past  but I try not to order on the internet any more)

Well Deliveroo is one thing, but orders from large retailers tend to get put in a big van with lots of other orders.

[Rhiannon]

I don't know. The original story has gone it seems, but the net effect of a levy on specific companies is the same as a subsidy on other companies. This is why the E|U is very strict about governments subsidising companies under their jurisdiction, because it is effectively the same as if they taxed all of their competitors.

But it isn’t a tax on like for like companies. And although Hammond is referring to Amazon (pillock) he actually means ‘on-line retailers’. Companies like Amazon take far more than a High St chain but pay minuscule tax in comparison. His proposal is centred around making them pay fairer taxes in light of the discrepancy.

I think he’s an idiot linking taxing Amazon to ‘saving the High St’; that’s just a headline-grabbing soundbite. Not sure about the UK but I think that overall a big chunk of Amazon’s profits come from providing internet services of one kind or another, plus of course its tv streaming. 

[jeremyp]

But it isn’t a tax on like for like companies.

So? They are all retailers trying to sell stuff to us.

And although Hammond is referring to Amazon (pillock) he actually means ‘on-line retailers’.

In the story I read it was "tech giants" and Amazon Facebook and Google were given as examples.

Companies like Amazon take far more than a High St chain but pay minuscule tax in comparison. His proposal is centred around making them pay fairer taxes in light of the discrepancy.

They follow the same tax rules as everybody else. It may be that the rules need tightening up, but a whole new tax just because their costs are lower than those of bricks and mortar retailers is wrong. And don't forget, the tax "efficiencies" available to them are available to high street retailers as well as long as they are multinational. Starbucks is notorious because for many years, the UK subsidiary never made a profit and therefore paid little corporation tax in this country.

I fully agree that there is a problem in the way multinationals are able to legally avoid paying tax . What we need to do is get together with our European allies and... oh, bugger.