Amazon and Tax-Avoidance: Is it immoral to buy amazon?

[SeaKing]

All I have to say is that if people want to pay more taxes, they are welcome to some of mine.

But I got a problem when they want me to pay more taxes than I have to.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Billi

Is it? It should act in its own best interest, then the shareholders (normally) will be happy too. And the interests of a company and its shareholders may even be contradicting and that's totally legal too.

Under UK company law (and I believe US law, too) the directors of a company do indeed have a legal obligation to act in the best interests of the shareholders, and can be sued if they fail to do so.

[DrNefario]

I feel that rich companies, like rich individuals, essentially get to choose how much tax they feel like paying, and I hope some of them are shamed into abandoning their avoidance schemes, but really I want a change to the law to level the playing field. It isn't fair to smaller businesses that can't afford to operate a tax haven HQ, or whatever the latest wheeze is. It's anti-competitive.

No representation without taxation.

That said, the reason I use amazon is because they are the best at what they do. I find it very difficult to abandon that, and I guess I'm not willing to do so. As a non-coffee-drinker, I found it a lot easier to boycott Starbucks.

[petercreasey]

Whatever Amazon has to pay in the way of expenses, including taxes, will necessarily be passed on to the consumer.

I salute anyone who legally avoids paying taxes. Taxes are becoming too onerous.

[GeoffC]

Is very difficult to avoid buying from Amazon if they offer you the best price for whatever you are wishing to buy.

Why pay £1000 outside, when they price the exact same thing at £500 (for example). By seeking to save, I am doing what the company also does - both legal under current laws.

They may not have been upfront with all their taxes, but I doubt they dodge VAT and deduct taxes on their employees wages. As someone else has already pointed out their Board has a legal responsibility to their shareholders to minimise costs etc.

[Billi]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I feel that rich companies, like rich individuals, essentially get to choose how much tax they feel like paying, and I hope some of them are shamed into abandoning their avoidance schemes, but really I want a change to the law to level the playing field. It isn't fair to smaller businesses that can't afford to operate a tax haven HQ, or whatever the latest wheeze is. It's anti-competitive.

Exactly. And at least here in Germany, our government only knew one way of compensating the decreasing sum of taxes paid by the big companies - by increasing the sales taxes ("Mehrwertsteuer") for everyone.

[QuantumIguana]

The more taxes are cut, the more people complain about how high they are. If you want to see high tax rates to back to the 1950's. If Amazon could raise their prices and get people to pay the higher price, they would have done so already. Competition limits the ability of companies to raise prices - if one company raises prices, the competitor stands to gain by not raising prices.

Of course, this whole conversation really has nothing to do with Amazon and certainly has nothing to do with e-books. I'm surprised it has remained in the e-book section this long. Perhaps the OP should take all this energy to lobby to change the law.

[HarryT]

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