Amazon has received $4.7 billion in subsidies globally, report

Amazon has received $4.7 Billion in subsidies from taxpayers globally, report

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Amazon has received $4.7 Billion in subsidies from taxpayers globally, report

The true value of the subsidies is hidden and likely much higher

Amazon, the world's largest online retailer and the biggest cloud services provider, has received at least $4.7 billion (about £3.5 billion) in subsidies over the past decade from governments worldwide for opening new warehouses, offices, data centres and call centres in their jurisdictions.

That's according to a new report that used data from company statements, public records, and investor reports to identify subsidies that Amazon has extracted from foreign governments to help the firm expand its worldwide network of data centres, warehouses, and delivery centres.

The report [pdf] - titled Amazon.com's Hidden Worldwide Subsidies - was commissioned by subsidies watchdog group Good Jobs First and global labour federation UNI Global Union.

According to the report, Amazon has received the majority of tax benefits - $4.1 billion - for projects in the United States, where the company has 110 fulfilment centres.

Outside the United States, Amazon has received at least $600 million in government subsidies in more than a dozen countries, where the company has aggressively expanded its Amazon Prime and data centre networks.

These tax-breaks included:

The full amount of the subsidies is "hidden" and likely much higher, due to "poor disclosure rules in most nations" according to the report.

The authors said they identified 407 Amazon facilities in 13 countries "where evidence exists or there is reason to believe that Amazon has received subsidies from governments for its projects, but where full data is not available.

These countries are: Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, India, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, Spain and the UK.

"Amazon is one of the richest and fastest growing companies in the world. It racked up $44 billion in European sales in 2020 but paid no corporate taxes—all while snooping on workers and dragging down labour conditions," said Christy Hoffman, General Secretary of UNI Global Union.

"It shouldn't receive a penny from taxpayers."

Kenneth Thomas, a research fellow at Good Jobs First, said governments should stop granting subsidies to Amazon, and instead use the fund to invest in public services and smaller firms.

In recent years, Amazon's tax practices have drawn criticism from a broad group of actors from civil society.

Last year, an analysis by trade union Unite found that Amazon reported up to £8.2 billion of its UK sales in Luxembourg in 2019, to avoid paying the higher rates in the UK.

The report claimed that the retail giant declared £13.7 billion of UK sales in its US accounts in 2019, but reported just £5.5 billion in sales in filings for its UK-based firms.

The researchers examined accounts for 19 of Amazon's UK-registered companies, including its warehouses, logistics operation and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). They estimated that the company paid a maximum of £84 million on its profits in UK tax - about £46 million less than would have been expected.

Earlier in June, a report by Fair Tax Foundation named Amazon and Facebook as the worst offenders in tax avoidance.

The researchers claimed that Amazon paid $5.9 billion in taxes between 2011 and 2020, on reported profit of $60.5 billion and revenues of $1.6 trillion. Based on international tax rates, the company should have paid $10.7 billion in taxes over that period.