Reeves: It’s wrong that Amazon pay less tax than high street businesses

Labour’s shadow chancellor has taken aim at Jeff Bezos and Amazon for paying less in tax than high street businesses.

“If you can afford to fly to space, you can pay your taxes here on Earth,” Rachel Reeves told the Labour party conference in Brighton on Monday.

Ms Reeves made the remarks as she called on the Government to increase the digital services tax to 12% for the next year, to make sure online companies like Amazon are paying their fair share.

Ms Reeves insisted the whole system of business taxation is not “fair” or “fit for purpose”, adding: “How can it be when bricks-and-mortar, high street businesses are taxed more heavily than online giants? High street businesses pay over a third of business rates, despite making up only 15% of the overall economy.