Amazon has been accused of profiteering from a multi-billion-pound VAT fraud that is pushing British businesses to the wall.
MPs said the online retailer was ‘turning a blind eye’ to organised criminals from China and elsewhere who sell their goods cheaply on internet auction sites – but don’t register to pay VAT.
The scam takes up to £1.5billion a year from Treasury coffers and lets the sellers undercut law-abiding British traders, forcing them to fold or lay staff off.
Yesterday, MPs on the Commons public accounts committee accused internet marketplaces Amazon and eBay of not doing enough to root out foreign firms that fail to pay tax.
They also said that because online retailers take a commission from the total that tax-evading traders make, they receive more money from them than if the 20 per cent VAT was paid – letting them ‘profiteer’ from the fraud.
The MPs criticised Amazon for letting foreign traders store goods in its warehouses even if they do not have a valid VAT number.
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2 comments:
is it amazons fault?
dont think so
let the gov go after the seller
It is not eBay or Amazon's fault with this, the International buyer is the one who is responsible for paying the VAT tax on any merchandise that they purchase and receive. Most of the time the buyers are hit with a huge VAT tax on these items, the problem is the sites do not make it clear enough to the buyers that they are the ones responsible for paying the tax.
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