Facebook UK tax bill triples to £15.8m

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Facebook paid triple the amount of tax in the UK for the year, amid record British sales of £1.27 billion.

Whilst the social network platform paid £15.7 million in taxes, this still only accounted for just 1 percent of its total sales.

Tech giants such as Facebook and Apple have come under increased scrutiny in recent years, particularly with regards to tax.

Facebook’s head of northern Europe, Steve Hatch, commented: “The UK is home to our largest engineering base outside the US and we continue to invest heavily here.

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“By the end of 2018 we will employ 2,300 people in the UK and we are doubling our office space in London’s King’s Cross with capacity for more than 6,000 workstations by 2022.

“We have also changed the way we report tax so that revenue from customers supported by our UK teams is recorded in the UK and any taxable profit is subject to UK corporation tax.”

Last week, Facebook was named the ninth most valuable company in the world, according to rankings by Interbrand.

Leading the rankings, Apple cinched the top spot, closely followed by Google and Amazon.

Nevertheless, tech companies continue to pay comparatively minimal taxes compared to their hefty profits.

Despite pressure from MPs and the public, some in the UK remain concerned that enforcing high tax bills will negatively affect the UK’s competitiveness, particularly in a post-Brexit era.

Facebook hit the headlines last week after it confirmed that at least 50 million user accounts had been targeted in its biggest cyber-attack to date.

However, this isn’t the first time that Facebook has been criticised for failing to protect the security and privacy of its users.

Uncovering of Facebook’s involvement in the Cambridge Analytica scandal prompted a mass reconfiguration of the EU’s data privacy laws.

Accordingly, The EU implemented GDPR, which constituted one of the most substantial data regulatory laws in its history.

Shares in Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) are currently -0.32 percent in pre-market trading.