Facebook pays £4327 in United Kingdom corporation tax

The small bill was despite the company being able to pay its 362 UK-based employees an average of £210,000 in pay and bonuses. It gave its London staff Facebook shares worth £35.4 million, according to the report, pushing its losses to £28.5 million and so hugely reducing its tax bill.

The loss meant Facebook paid only £4,327 in corporation tax – nearly £1,000 less than the average British worker – despite being on of the world’s largest listed companies.

Many of its other profits from the United Kingdom are sent to its worldwide headquarters in Ireland, which then puts them in the low-tax Cayman Islands, reports the Sunday Times.

The latest payment is up slightly on the previous year, however, when it paid just £3,169, although at the same time it did receive a £182,000 tax credit due to adjustments in prior years.

Facebook has been criticised for the methods it uses to avoid paying corporation tax.

Margaret Hodge, former chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, told the Daily Mail Facebook was “still refusing to listen to the voice of public opinion” adding that the company was “using elaborate corporate structures and artificial devices for no goal other than to avoid tax”.

Osborne said at a meeting of the worldwide Monetary Fund on Friday that “no one should be in any doubt we will take steps at future fiscal events” to introduce new rules. We continue to grow our business activities in the United Kingdom’.

The issue of multinationals using tax loopholes to avoid paying corporation tax has become a major issue in the past few years.

However, the OECD’s top tax official, Pascal Saint-Amans, has just announced “once in a century” review overhauling the system.

Ireland has taken steps to close the “Double Irish” which has been used by many USA companies setting up operations in Europe to minimise tax bills. That translated into profits of $2.94 billion.