Boris Johnson challenges Jeff Bezos on Amazon tax at New York meeting

Boris Johnson challenges Jeff Bezos on Amazon tax at New York meeting

Boris Johnson has challenged Jeff Bezos on Amazon’s tax payments at a meeting in New York during his US visit. Downing Street said the Prime Minister had pushed for the online retail giant to work with countries on implementing a recent G7 deal to make multinationals pay more tax in the countries where they do business. Mr Johnson “raised the issue of taxation, and hoped progress could be made in implementing the G7 agreement on tax”, a No 10 spokesman said. Amazon has faced repeated calls to contribute more to the Exchequer . The company said it paid £492m in direct taxes last year, but it has faced criticism for logging UK sales outside Britain. The two also discussed the upcoming climate summit in Glasgow and the billionaire’s Earth Fund, where he is directing part of his $194bn (£142bn) net worth. Mr Bezos said there had been “a lot of passion” in the discussion on climate change and that the two had also debated the respective merits of the American science fiction author Isaac Asimov and English writer Arthur C Clarke. “Good exchange of ideas on climate change with a lot of passion around preserving and restoring the natural world,”