Zero Corporation Tax Paid by Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) in UK despite making Millions in Revenue

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By Lisa Bradley on October 22, 2014 Financial, Social Media

As per the latest financial return with Companies House, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has been able to totally evade corporate taxes in United Kingdom last year even though it made revenue of $596 million (£371 million) in 2013 in the region. A number of US companies like Facebook, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) have been facing a strong criticism in recent years. All due to the fact that they are able to earn generous revenues in UK but once it comes to corporation tax they pay a trivial amount and sometimes even nothing at all.

As per modus of operandi followed by other similar US technology companies, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) while operating in UK channelizes sales through its Ireland subsidiary. This is in order to take advantage of lower corporation tax rate which is 12.5 percent as compared to the tax rate of 24 percent in UK for the year 2013.

On Tuesday, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) filed financial statement with Companies House and declared revenue of $79.89 million (£49.8 million) for 2013. This is substantially higher than 2012 revenue of $58.75 million. Despite earning handsome revenue, Facebook paid ‘Zero’ corporation tax in both the years. According to an estimate by eMarketer, a research company, almost $595 million (£ 371 million) were the revenue earnings of Facebook in UK during last year.

Facebook financial statement also declared $18.6 million (£11.6 million) of operating loss for 2013. This is quite a big increase from $3.85 million of operating loss posted in 2012. Moreover, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) also declared 2012 as “an anomaly year” because of the costs linked with its initial public offering (IPO). So the losses in both years abolish the requirement of corporation tax payment which is only paid when a company declares profits. UK corporation tax charges of $5,089 (£3,169) would have been paid by Facebook on its loss for the year, however, adjustment credit of $292,024 (£182,027) made on the earlier periods has eliminated even this amount.

The official document declares that “share based payments” was the “anamoly” accounting for this year for Facebook’s operating loss. As the company has been showing healthy performance worldwide, London staff of 208 personnel has been granted substantial compensation packages under “share based payments”. “Share based payment” charge was $24.88 million (£15.5 million) in 2013, more than three times the 2012 figures of $7.5 million. Last year, a total of 1.5 million free shares have been collected by Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) employees in UK and according to the current company’s stock value their total worth is about $119 million.

There is an increase in salaries and wages of its staff which stands at $35.31 million (£21.99 million) for 2013 as compared to $22.68 million in 2012. Therefore, the mean average annual salary of Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) UK employee came out to be about $170,000 (£106,000) for 2013. It is further highlighted that personal taxes are being paid to UK’s HM Revenue and Customs by all UK employees on their income and stock based compensation.