As our activity in France develops, Amazon increasingly participates in the financing of public services and the French social model. According to an independent report published by Deloitte, Amazon ranks for the third year in a row within the top 100 largest French taxpayers.
Amazon’s contribution to financing public services and the French social model amounts to hundreds of millions of euros each year. The Corporate Taxation in France 2021report, published by Deloitte and commissioned by Amazon, provides a tax benchmark which documents the fact that Amazon’s own direct tax contribution stands among the top 100 direct tax contributions in France.
This report, which draws on numerous academic works, builds an original database bringing together financial information from the balance sheets and income statements published by nearly 132,000 companies. It concludes that 100 companies each declared more than 182 million euros in direct tax contribution in France in 2021[1]. Over this same period, Amazon’s total tax contribution, taxes and levies collected by the French State (combining direct and indirect) wasmore than €1bn, and over €470m was incurred directly as a business on items like corporate tax, employer payroll taxes, and other local taxes.
This means that, for the third consecutive year, Amazon has been amongst the top 100 largest corporate taxpayers in France.
Amazon’s tax rate is higher than the median rate for the trade sector, the fourth most taxed sector in France
The report also unveils that the trade sector is today the fourth most taxed sector in France:
- Direct taxes represent 32.4% of the added value created in the trade sector, ahead of manufacturing (27.9%) and the national average (28.9%)[2].
- Within retail trade, the level of taxation in e-commerce (32.1%) is slightly superior to the average of retail (29.9%)[3].
- The median tax rate, i.e. the level of direct tax contributions paid by a company compared to its turnover, reached 4.6% in 2021[4] for retail and trade (including both online and offline retail). The tax rate for Amazon was 5.2% in 2021[5].
