Fury as Uber pays only £22k in UK corporation tax

UBER is the latest company to risk public anger after paying just £22,134 corporation tax in the UK last year despite making a £866,302 profit here.

Uber was launched in Glasgow last week. Picture: PA

The taxi hailing service launched in Glasgow last Friday, the first of what the US firm hope will be many Scottish cities that they offer their business to.

A spokesman for the company denied it had used any loopholes and insisted it had paid “every penny of tax that is due”.

He added: “With corporation tax, past losses offset current and future profits - as is the case with Uber which made losses in the UK in previous years. This is an accounting principle to encourage investment that dates back to Benjamin Disraeli. It is not a loophole.

It comes one week after Facebook revealed it paid just £4,327 corporation tax in the UK in 2014. A string of multinational firms have been criticised in recent months for taking steps to legally avoid corporation tax.

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TaxPayers’ Alliance chief executive Jonathan Isaby said such cases would keep arising until the Government took steps to level the playing field for companies.

“We will keep reading about big companies like Uber paying a pittance in tax until politicians get a grip on our maddeningly complex tax code,” he said.

“The system for taxing companies was designed decades ago and is now totally unsuitable for the modern, digital economy. It is time for politicians to stop their pointless moralising and fundamentally reform the tax code so all companies can compete on a level playing field.”

In other news, Uber is set to launch a service for disabled passengers in London.

The minicab-hailing app said more than 100 of its most experienced drivers have signed up to the uberAssist scheme.

Those needing it can request the service by typing ASSISTUK into the promotion screen on Uber’s app.