Facebook's UK arm paid £28.5m in tax in 2018 as revenues hit a record £797m on the back of strong advertising growth.
The social media firms's latest UK accounts show that profits last year jumped by 54% to £96.6m which is great to see a company like that growing and basing themselves in the UK.
Facebook's total tax charge on those profits almost doubled to £30.4m, but was reduced due to adjustments.
Tax campaigner and MP Margaret Hodge said such a low bill was "outrageous", but Facebook said it pays what it owes, well I can understand Margaret wanting to highlight and bash facebook but the reality is that if taxe rates were much lower then there would not be any need for transfer pricing or other management charges to shift profits away from the UK.
Many countries now have corporation tax rates of 10% or even 0% and the UK really should move to match those, if not in one budget then over a period of years
The UK division spent £356m on research, development and engineering in the UK last year, the accounts filed at Companies House show, which is wonderful to hear.
Steve Hatch, the company's vice president for Northern Europe, said: "The UK is now one of Facebook's most important hubs for global innovation. We continue to grow and invest heavily in the UK and by the end of the year we'll employ 3,000 people here.
"Businesses across the country use our platforms to grow and revenue from customers supported by our UK teams is now recorded here so that any taxable profit is subject to UK corporation tax." Well I have some sympathy for that view, but we benefit from their presence and the issue is the shocking level of Corporation and personal taxes in the UK.
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