BKL tax partner David Whiscombe comments via the UK200Group on news that online retailer Amazon is to launch Amazon Lending tomorrow (30 June). ‘It will offer loans to small and medium-sized companies that trade goods via Amazon’s Marketplace division for third-party sellers. Amazon Lending will initially be by invitation-only but the company has not ruled out expanding the service.’
“It will be interesting to see if this lending is done through a UK tax-paying company or if Amazon will be unable to resist the temptation to create arcane offshore structures to avoid the inconvenience of paying UK tax on the interest.”