Facebook’s UK arm pays less than £5,000 tax

Facebook has insisted it is complying with the law despite paying less than £5,000 in UK corporation tax last year.

Facebook said it was compliant with UK tax law. Picture: John Devlin

The social media giant’s UK arm paid just £4,327 in company taxes, according to its latest published accounts.

Accounts show that in 2014 the company made an accounting loss of £28.5 million in Britain, after paying out more than £35m to its 362 staff in a share bonus scheme – worth an average of more than £96,000 for each member of staff.

Facebook said it takes tax obligations seriously and worked closely with officials.

A spokesman said: “We are compliant with UK tax law and in fact all countries where we have employees and offices. We continue to grow our business activities in the UK.”

Facebook’s payment of £4,327 is less than a single UK worker on an average salary of £26,500, who would pay £3,180 in income tax and £2,213 in national insurance contributions.

Globally, Facebook made profits of $2.9 billion (£1.9bn), on revenue of $12.5bn in 2014. UK revenues were £105m.

Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, John O’Connell, said: “Taxpayers will be justifiably confused and angry about this tax bill. But Facebook is right to say it is complying with UK law which shows that the problem lies with our complex tax code.”