HMRC enforces the rules, they don't make them. The issue is not that Amazon doesn't pay taxes, it is that successive Tory governments allow them to offshore profits because the rules that Starbucks follow are the ones set up to let MPs offshore their money.
Remember, the Queen and our PM were in the Panama Papers. It was ignored because it is by design.
it is that successive Tory governments allow them to offshore profits
It is successive Tory and Labour governments and European and US and international governments that have allowed this to happen. It's simply theatre to pretend otherwise.
People who make money from online "side hustle" activities like these will find the tax net tightening this year.
From 1 January firms including Vinted, Airbnb, and eBay are obliged to collect and share details of such transactions with the tax authorities.
While HMRC was already able to request information from UK-based online operators, from the start of this year there are new rules that the UK has signed up to via the international body, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), as part of a global effort to clamp down on tax dodgers.
It will apply to sales of goods such as things that have been handcrafted and second hand clothes, but also services including taxi hire, food delivery, freelance work and short-term accommodation lets or even renting out your driveway for parking.
Adam Jay, chief executive of the second hand marketplace platform Vinted, told the BBC he did not believe the new rules would affect many of the site's sellers.
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