50 Ways to Get Amazon to Pay More Tax

Tax is usually a serious subject, right? And controversial too, with a huge outcry in recent years about the tax havens where many giant online retailers are based, and their complex schemes to minimise tax.

But now the business of tax has been given the spoof treatment, with a new book of 50 ideas to persuade and encourage Amazon to pay more of it.

What's more, the ebook, titled "50 Ways to Get Amazon to Pay More Tax", is available on the Kindle, Amazon's own e-reader, as well as from other outlets.

Author PK Munroe admits this is "a bit cheeky" but says it seemed the perfect place for it. "If the book does well, they will pay more tax, maybe."

"What Amazon are doing with their Luxembourg tax haven and tax-minimisation schemes is perfectly legal" said Munroe. "So until the tax laws change, the best we can hope for is that they cough up something for good public relations, like Starbucks did". The coffee giant is said to have paid the UK tax authorities some £20m after a public outcry about their paying no corporation tax here.

The Ideas in the book range from the unusual to the absurd, with plenty of light-hearted suggestions for "consumer disobedience", including:

dressing up as a tax inspector and hanging around Amazon's offices,
encouraging them to pay by letting them re-name the river Trent as 'The Amazon',
setting up barrage balloons on the roof of your house to interfere with deliveries by Amazon drones.

Many suggestions refer to Amazon's strict treatment of its warehouse employees, whose toilet breaks are limited and timed; one proposal suggests applying similar rules at Amazon's shareholder meetings. Other ideas focus on Amazon's steady march towards becoming the biggest retailer on Earth.

"Toilets and world domination", said Munroe, "are always good for a laugh".

He notes that because the ebook is short, the price is low. "Also, I don't want this putting me in a higher tax bracket."

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