Amazon has been delivering for customers, sellers, and communities in the UK for 25 years. During this time, we’ve continued to support economic growth across the country, empower UK small and medium businesses to thrive, and contribute to local economies through our education and charity initiatives. In the last year alone, we’ve directly invested more than £12bn in the UK and made total tax contributions of more than £4.3bn. As a result, Keystone Strategy, an independent macroeconomic consultancy, estimates that our investments have contributed an additional £10bn to UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
This is Amazon – September 2024
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1. Our tax contributions in the UK
As we continue to invest in our UK operations and workforce, we help fund public services and vital infrastructure, and create jobs throughout the country. That’s why our financial contribution takes in a number of aspects across the direct taxes we pay and the taxes we administer and collect on behalf of the Exchequer as a result of our activities in the UK:
- Taxes borne: the taxes that are directly incurred and payable by Amazon, including Employer National Insurance, Business Rates, Corporation Tax, Import Duties, Stamp Duty Land Tax and Digital Services Tax; and
- Taxes collected: the taxes we collect and remit from our customers, employees, and other third parties because of our business activities in the UK. Some of these include VAT, Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions.
2. A top 10 taxpayer in the UK
When comparing our 2022 data to the most recent PwC Total Tax Contribution survey of the 100 Group (an independent study which analyses UK tax contributions from FTSE 100 companies and other large UK private companies), Amazon ranks in the top 10 largest UK taxpayers for taxes borne and collected, as well as for the overall total tax contribution. For the third consecutive year, Amazon ranked in the top five for total capital investment, and top 10 for business rates. The full year to 31 December 2023 shows:
- Our total tax contribution (combining taxes borne and taxes collected) was more than £4.3bn (2022: £3.6bn)
- Our total taxes borne was more than £932m (2022: £781m)
- The taxes we collected and administered for the government were more than an additional £3.4bn as a result of our business activities in the UK (2022: £2.8bn)
3. Investing in the UK
Our investment includes building new infrastructure (known as capital expenditure), such as our fulfilment centres, corporate offices and data centres, and creating jobs in towns and cities across the UK (known as operating expenditure). These direct investments raise the economic activity in a given region, and create a ripple effect through the economy as the firms that supply goods and services to Amazon expand and associated household spending increases. Below is a summary of our overall investments in the UK:
- In 2023, the total revenues of Amazon’s activities in the UK were more than £27bn
- We invested more than £12bn in the UK last year
- We contributed an additional £10bn to UK GDP in 2023
- In the last 10 years (2014-2023), we’ve invested more than £64bn in our UK operations
4. Supporting local economies and communities across the UK
We have over 100 sites across the UK, including more than 25 fulfilment centres and corporate offices in six cities. In 2023, we invested more than £1.5bn in infrastructure as we enhanced our fulfilment centres with the latest robotics technology, including a new £450 million state-of-the-art fulfilment centre in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham which opened its doors in October. This is in addition to our development centres in Cambridge, Edinburgh and London, working on projects such as Prime Video, Alexa and the shopping experience for our online store.
5. Creating rewarding and skilled jobs
Our total permanent workforce of more than 75,000 employees makes us one of the top 10 private sector employers in the UK. Our employees are spread across the UK in a variety of corporate and technology functions, including software development, product management, and engineering, as well as operations jobs in at our fulfilment centres, sort centres, data centres and delivery stations. This year, we also marked a decade of our Career Choice employee growth programme, which pre-pays 95% of tuition for courses in high-demand fields, up to £8,000 per employee, over four years. More than 18,500 Amazon employees in the UK have participated in Career Choice since the programme launched.
6. Making an impact in local communities
Working with Gordon Brown, our Multibank initiative has donated more than 3 million surplus goods to help 400,000 families in need. The first Multibank launched in Fife, Scotland in 2022, followed by a second in Wigan, Greater Manchester in 2023, with the most recent community donations hubs opening in London and Swansea in 2024.
7. Empowering small and medium sized businesses
Our investment indirectly supports a network of around 100,000 UK-based small and medium-sized enterprises sellers who sell their products on Amazon’s stores across the world. UK sellers exported more than £3.8bn in 2023, an increase of more than 15% compared to the year before.
8. Supporting the UK creative industries including film, books, fashion, music and more
We continue to invest in the creative industries, including through our recent acquisition of the legendary Bray Film Studios. Our investments in the industry support jobs across Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon Publishing, Prime Video, Audible, Amazon Fashion, Amazon Music, Amazon Games and more. We’re also committed to supporting the next generation of UK creative talent by funding apprenticeships and traineeships across TV, film and books.
9. Helping the UK take full advantage of the growing benefits of cloud computing
Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently announced plans to invest £8 billion over the next five years (2024-2028) in building, operating, and maintaining data centres in the UK. This investment is part of our long-term commitment to supporting growth and productivity across the country, and is estimated to contribute £14bn to the UK’s GDP through to 2028, and support an average of more than 14,000 full-time equivalent jobs on an annual basis at local UK businesses.
We are proud of the significant economic contribution we are making to the UK economy. Read more here.