
John Christensen ■ Amazon and the author who smelled a rat

World famous children’s author Allan Ahlberg has rejected a lifetime achievement award because it is sponsored by the tax-abusing retailer Amazon.
Ahlberg, whose many books include The Children Who Smelled a Rat, was due to receive his award at the Booktrust Best Book Awards ceremony last week.
Writing to the Bookseller, he explained that he declined the award on principle because of Amazon’s abusive tax arrangements.
As Ahlberg comments: “Tax, fairly applied to us all, is a good thing. It pays for schools, hospitals – libraries! When companies like Amazon cheat – paying 0.1% on billions, pretending it is earning money not in the UK, but in Luxembourg – that’s a bad thing. We should surely, at the very least, say that it is bad and on no account give it any support or, by association, respectability.”
Some artists get it: others don’t.
Related articles

Big Tobacco, big tax abuse

Tobacconomics: Measuring the value of cigarette taxes

$427bn lost to tax havens every year: landmark study reveals countries’ losses and worst offenders

Corporate profit misalignment: An analysis of German parent companies and their foreign affiliates

Offshore, National Security and Britain’s Role

Tax Justice Network’s offshore wealth estimates have just been validated by the OECD
Ashes to ashes: How British American Tobacco avoids taxes in low and middle income countries
20 April 2019

Ten reasons why the Destination Based Cash Flow Tax is a terrible idea

World’s biggest monopolist pays negative taxes
