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ลำดับตอนที่ #57 : Facebook to pay millions of pounds more in UK tax
After
heavy criticism that it was avoiding tax, the BBC can reveal that profits from
the majority of Facebook's advertising revenue initiated in Britain will now be taxed in
the UK.
It
will no longer route
sales through Ireland for its largest advertisers.
That
includes major businesses such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, consumer goods firm
Unilever and advertising giant WPP.
Is tax tide beginning to turn?
Smaller
business sales where advertising is booked online - with little or no Facebook
staff intervention
- will still be routed through Ireland, which will remain the company's
international headquarters.
I
am told the change will mean that Facebook will account for substantially more
revenue in the UK and will therefore pay a higher level of corporation tax on
the profits it makes here.
Corporation
tax is levied at 20% on the profits a business makes.
The
changes will be put in place in April and Facebook's first, higher, tax bill,
will be paid in 2017.
My sources tell me
that Facebook moved after coming under increasing global pressure on its tax
affairs and as a reaction to changing tax rules.
There was widespread
controversy when it
was revealed that Facebook paid £4,327 in corporation tax in the UK in 2014, despite Britain
being one of the company's biggest markets outside the US.
Globally,
the company makes more than £1bn of profit every three months. It does not
reveal figures for how much business it does in the UK.
The
government's new diverted
profits tax was also likely to have a punitive effect on the business in Britain.
That
tax is set at 25%, higher than the corporation tax rate, and is aimed at
companies which use "contrived"
structures to move profits out of the country.
Facebook
executives will be
told about the changes this morning.
"On
Monday, we will start notifying large UK customers that from the start of
April, they will receive invoices
from Facebook UK and not Facebook Ireland," the internal post, seen by the
BBC, says.
"What
this means in practice is that UK sales made directly by our UK team will be
booked in the UK, not Ireland. Facebook UK will then record the revenue from
these sales.
"In
light of changes to tax law in the UK, we felt this change would provide transparency to
Facebook's operations in the UK.
"The
new structure is easier to understand and clearly recognises the value our UK
organisation adds to our sales through our highly skilled and growing UK sales
team."
At this stage, it is
not possible to say precisely
how much tax Facebook will pay.
It
is not under any regulatory obligation to reveal the size of its UK business
until it reaches 10% of its global operations, which generate revenues of
nearly $18bn (£12.7bn) a year.
But
the importance of Britain to Facebook is revealed by the fact it employs 850
people in the UK and is building a new headquarters in London.
Facebook
has now said that those staff are doing "value-added" work, a key
issue in the setting of tax rates.
Before
this new structure, Facebook's UK revenues were based on a fee payment from
Facebook Ireland, which meant that its actual sales here did not affect its tax
bill.
That
is a similar structure to Google UK, which is paid by its US parent firm for
operations in Britain.
Google
has also faced controversy over its tax affairs.
In January, the BBC
revealed that the search giant would pay £130m in back taxes after an inquiry by the tax authority, Her Majesty's
Revenue and Customs.
My
Facebook sources insist that this move is not a reaction to the Google
settlement and has been planned "for some time".
There
has been speculation that Facebook is also the subject of an inquiry by HMRC
over its tax structure, but the social media giant has refused to confirm or
deny there is any live process.
I
am told the company's new structure has been discussed with HMRC, although
there is no formal "agreement" with the tax authority.
overhaul (v.)
to repair or improve something so that every part of it worksas it should:
revenue (n.) the income that a government or company receivesregularly:
route (n.)
a particular way or direction between places:
a method of achieving something:A college education
a set of regular visits that you make to a number of places or people, especially in order to take products as part of your job
(v.)
to send something somewhere using a particular way or direction
to send information from one computernetwork to another
intervention
(n.)
the act or fact of becoming involved intentionally in a difficultsituation:
substantially(adv.)
controversy (n.)
a lot of disagreement or argument about something, usually because it affects or is important to many people:
diverted (v.)
to cause something or someone to change direction:
to use
something for a different purpose
to take someone's attention away from something:
to entertain someone:
punitive (adj.)
intended as a punishment
used to describe costs that are so high they are difficult to pay
contrived
(adj.)
artificial and difficult to believe
executives (n.)
someone in a high position, especially in business, who makes decisions and puts them into action
the part of a government that is responsible for making certain that laws and decisions are put into action
a group of people who run a business or an organization
(adj.)
relating to making decisions and managing businesses,
or suitable for people with important jobs in business:
invoices (n.)
a list of things provided or work done together with theircost, for payment at a later time:
(v.)
to supply an invoice
transparency
(n.)
the characteristic of being easy to see through
a photograph or picture printed on plasticthat you can see on a screen by shining a light through it
precisely (adv.)
used to emphasize what you are saying
used to express complete agreement with someone or suggest that what they have said is obvious
carefully and accurately:
inquiry (n.)
(the process of asking) a question:
an official process to discover the facts about something bad that has happened:
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