Facebook triples its UK tax bill to £15.8m

Facebook paid £15.8m in UK tax last year, tripling the amount it paid in 2016 as tech firms come under increased scrutiny by HMRC.

Accounts filed last week on Companies House revealed the social media giant's profits for its UK office, which covers expenses on marketing, sales and engineering support, rose 6.3 per cent to £62.7m in 2017, up from £58.4m a year earlier. 

Its revenue rose to £1.2bn, an increase of more than a third year-on-year, due to an increase in intercompany services and advertising reseller activities. Facebook paid just £5.1m in tax two years ago. 

The news follows a push by UK chancellor Philip Hammond to put pressure on large tech firms to pay higher amounts of corporate tax, as many channel sales through other countries such as Ireland to avoid a big tax bill.

Read more: Airbnb reveals its UK tax bill amid Tory calls for a digital services tax

Morning Wire revealed last week that online rentals platform Airbnb paid just shy of £600,000 in UK tax last year, as its UK office operates under a similar structure to Facebook of providing marketing services to its Irish parent.

Hammond pledged at the Conservative party conference last month that the UK would "go it alone" if necessary by implementing a so-called digital services tax.

The proposition was met with public outcry from industry leaders, who said the measures will only hurt smaller British businesses and consumers.

Steve Hatch, Facebook's vice president of Northern Europe, said today's tax results reflect the first full year under Facebook's updated tax structure, which moved all revenue from customers supported by UK teams to be recorded by the UK business.