As per a report by the Financial Times, UK Prime Minister (PM) Boris Johnson is all set to challenge Jeff Bezos over Amazon’s tax record. This comes even as concerns continue to mount regarding the international corporate tax rates that are applicable to tech biggies, and so, it is not surprising that Johnson plans to discuss the same with Bezos during a meeting with the biz mogul.
The meeting is scheduled to take place at New York on Monday, as per a statement by 10 Downing Street, the UK PM’s residence. During the same, Johnson will also be asking the former Amazon CEO to accelerate the diplomatic efforts to provide support towards the efforts to help tackle the climate crisis and protect the environment.
Meeting That Matter
The PM’s residence had previous stated that Johnson had called out the country’s partners and allies for “stagnating” their pledge of annually committing $100 billion towards the developing world, to help the less well-off countries cut back on their respective carbon emissions.
Johnson will most like also be holding climate-related talks with Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. Brazil’s foreign minister is notorious for not taking the global climate change theory seriously, while claiming that there doesn’t exist any “climate change catastrophe as such.” Bolsonaro too, has received flak for valuing his developmental projects over environmental and forest conservation. The UK Prime Minister will be urging his Brazilian counterpart to contribute his bit towards protecting the environment, presumably during the United Nations General Assembly at New York.
Johnson, who is being accompanied by Liz Truss, his new Foreign Minister, will also hold talks with POTUS Joe Biden. He will also convene a conference of global leaders in collaboration with Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations. Following the same, Johnson is expected to meet with the former Amazon boss.
Failed to Pay Tax
The online retail giant had faced criticism earlier this year for withdrawing from the HQ2 of New York City, on grounds of not paying corporate taxes. To make matters worse, the company’s tax filings in Luxembourg had shown how it raked in revenue worth £38 billion in Europe, without paying any corporate tax. Amazon has also faced accusations of seeking tax incentives that run into billions, and paying zero taxes in 2018, despite raking in revenue worth $11 billion.
Boris Johnson is well known for being a vocal supporter of efforts to tackle climate change.
