
The top five technology companies operating in the UK - Google, Cisco, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple - paid a combined total of GBP 237 million in taxes in 2018, an effective tax rate of only 2.9 percent on combined profits of GBP 8.1 billion from UK customers, according to new research from TaxWatch.
The analysis shows that the companies implement complex financial structures to move these profits offshore, and that the total amount of tax avoided by them is estimated at GBP 1.3 billion for 2018.