Amazon entered 6,000 million in Spain in 2021, 11% more, and increased its investments by 48% | Economy

Amazon recorded total gross income from its activities in Spain of 6,000 million euros in 2021, which is 11% more than the 5,400 million euros registered last year, as reported by the electronic commerce giant this Friday.

The company assures that it paid more than 292 million euros in taxes during the past year, 11.8% more. Thus, it paid more than 224 million euros in direct taxes, which include taxes on payroll and Social Security, as well as corporate taxes and taxes paid for the acquisition, construction of land, services digital and import duties. In fact, the personal income tax of the workers is also recorded as their own, an amount that should be excluded from the taxes that they really have to pay.

The multinational also says that last year it collected 68 million euros more in indirect taxes as a result of its activity in Spain, which includes VAT and taxes paid by its employees retained by the company. The company should not make a show of paying these taxes either because VAT is passed on after having borne it. It is a mere transmitter. And the taxes paid by your employees belong to them, not to the company. Actually, Amazon is part of the group of technology giants known for setting up financial strategies and business structures to pay less taxes. The case of Amazon is paradigmatic because its headquarters in Europe is in Luxembourg, where it has tax advantages. These practices, which are legal, arouse misgivings in the Tax Agency.

The main international organizations have spent years trying to plug these fiscal engineering sheds. The European Commission, the OECD or the G20 have spent months trying to approve a tax so that these types of companies pay taxes where they do business and not where they have their headquarters. In addition, almost two hundred countries have agreed to set a minimum corporate tax rate of 15% to guarantee minimum taxation to these global corporations that have the capacity to have subsidiaries in those territories with friendlier taxation.

The vice president and general director of Amazon Italy and Amazon Spain, Mariangela Marseglia, has stressed that the multinational is a “relevant engine” for the Spanish economy. “Since we launched Amazon Spain in 2011, we have invested more than 10.5 billion euros in the country and we currently employ 18,000 people,” she recalled. “We have committed to reaching 25,000 permanent employees and training 50,000 SMEs and entrepreneurs to sell on-line in Spain before the end of the year 2025″, Marseglia has advanced about the company’s commitment to increase its workforce in Spain.

Strong investment in the country

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Amazon increased its investments in Spain by 48% in 2021, to 3,700 million euros, reinvesting last year more than half of the income it generated. In this way, in 2021 the multinational opened several new headquarters, and currently has a logistics network made up of some 40 facilities that are spread throughout Spain, between operations and corporate offices.

The company indicated that in addition to these openings, it is working to promote its development centers for software —Tech Hubs— in Madrid and Barcelona, ​​which have nearly 600 developers of software, computer engineers and data scientists, while earlier this year it announced the arrival of Lab126 at the Madrid technology center, where it will hire 100 people to work on the next generation of devices. Amazon has recalled that it also invests in tools and support for companies that use its technology and services.

Thus, in 2021, they had more than 12,000 Spanish SMEs that sold their products in their marketplace. In this way, nearly half of these SMEs exported their products all over the world, reaching more than 650 million euros in international sales. Additionally, those vendors created more than 30,000 jobs. Spanish SMEs sold more than 60 million products in Amazon stores in 2021, which represents an increase of 70% compared to 2020 records. In addition, the company has committed to training 50,000 companies before 2025 with the skills needed to sell globally.

For its part, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is also helping Spanish companies to grow and to support digital transformation in Spain it will open a new infrastructure region in Spain that will allow Spanish customers, including SMEs, startup, large companies or government agencies, run workloads and store data in Spain and serve their end users with even lower latency. Located in Aragon, the new AWS Europe (Spain) region represents an additional investment of €2.5 billion and the estimated creation of 1,300 new full-time jobs over the next 10 years.

Commitment to sustainability

On the other hand, Amazon, first signatory of The Climate Fold, has committed to a net-zero carbon footprint across its global business by 2040, a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement target. In terms of investments in sustainability, the company has become the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in Spain, with 14 renewable projects in the country —solar and wind— that will have a combined capacity of more than 1.4 gigawatts (GW) .

In addition, in 2022 they will stop using plastic bags for products sent through the logistics network itself in Spain and, in 2020, the sale on Amazon.es of certain single-use plastic products, such as cotton swabs and straws, was prohibited. , cutlery, plates or drink stirrers, as well as those made with oxodegradable plastic.