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Amazon Boss Becomes World's Third Richest

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mikey4444 | 07:10 Fri 29th Jul 2016 | News
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36917516

Does anybody else think that its a bit strange, that Bezos is now the world the worlds 3rd richest, and yet his company makes so little profit, that it pays hardly any UK tax ?
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Strange that, yes. Maybe he makes all the company profit in Tibet ?
I read somewhere that the retail side of Amazon makes very little profit.

The big money is made in the IT solutions part of their business, cloud storage etc.
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Booldawg....with respect....testicles.

That argument may have worked with the HMRC but it doesn't wash with me.
Mikey, your talents are wasted on AnswerBank. ;o)
Not strange at all, Mikey.

Amazon, like many other companies, optimises its affairs to reduce its tax liabilities to the barest minimum possible whilst obeying the law. It shifts money to places like Luxembourg where jean-Claude Juncker presided for a number of years, overseeing the generous tax regime there.

Companies have a duty to reduce their tax payments to a minimum. I'd do exactly the same if I had enough dosh to make it viable. The answer is for individual countries to change their tax laws not to castigate individuals for legally exploiting the tax system.
Didn't know we had a Talent show on here?
Maybe the OP was castigating the HMRC rather than those who immorally even if legally reduce tax payments using the goal of maximising profit as justification ? IMO if you extract wealth from country X then you should pay the tax on that to country X, not be able to avoid it by shifting the money elsewhere. Shifting the money in and out should not be that easy anyway.
"Didn't know we had a Talent show on here?"

something else to add to your long list of dont knows...

As for Amazon and Bezos...dont blame him, hes done nothing wrong until proven otherwise legally...his company uses the laws to do what everybody should do, avoid paying anymore tax than they should...only mugs pay more, and please dont come up with this "morally wrong" guff.......

The usual politics of envy from the left, thats why Bezos is successful and youre sitting around scratching your bums on AB moaning about it

Again, someone muddling up the definitions of envy and equity.
And the profit on which any tax is based will be after payment of salaries
Mikey,
You don't understand the Amazon business model.
Its function is to increase revenue which are growing hugely year on year. But any money it does make is instantly spent on new ventures and possible future income streams. So it migh make $10billion on revenue, but uses all that money to build Cloud storage facilities. So the business makes zero profit on huge revenue.

Amazon is a worldwide American company, and blaming Luxembourg for offering the best tax regime in Europe is a total red herring.

http://static1.uk.businessinsider.com/image/54cbad5bdd08953f418b45e3-960/b043686e-a806-11e4-97a6-00144feab7de.img.png
Profit was still made in our country, from selling to our citizens, regardless what was done with it. It should be taxed before using the residue to build Cloud storage facilities or whatever. There should be a better set of rules regarding what one is allowed to offset against tax to avoid global companies grabbing and then avoiding contributing; whilst allowing legitimate expenses. Otherwise they are simply leeching off the country.
Amazon is operating its tax affairs within UK laws. The company has volunteered to change its system so it pays more tax to the UK

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/23/amazon-to-begin-paying-corporation-tax-on-uk-retail-sales
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Gromit....I think I do understand...here is a direct quote from my link :::

"Mr Bezos owns 18% of Amazon's shares, which rose 2% in trading on Thursday. Forbes estimated his fortune to be $65.3bn (£49.5bn)."

If he sold just 1% of his holdings, it would still make him rich as Croesus.

Mickey, you are confusing share value (purely speculative) vs profit.

They are not the same thing at all. Glad you dont do my accounts !!
Mikey,
Bezos own 18% of Amazon which makes no profit. So there is no dividend on the shares, he earns next to nothing from them. They only have a value if he sells them, and he isn't doing.
The most bizarre bit to get your head around is how a company that never makes a profit is worth $300billion?
So if it doesn't make a profit, where does Bezos get his worth from? Presumably he has an ENORMOUS salary?
The implication is that some folk are willing to pay that to own a non-profit making organisation.

The think is no one really believes it doesn't make a profit in the UK surely ? They make it and plough it into something else to avoid tax. This is what needs to be looked at. The tax rules are clearly in need of an overhaul.
Bezos gets £62,000 in salary

(Oh, and $1.6 million to cover security arrangements).
So, again, how come he's 'worth' so much?

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