Discussions about Amazon’s corporate tax filings in Europe often focus on a specific entity in Luxembourg called Amazon EU Sarl, which runs our European Stores business, but do not take in to account the local tax contributions by Amazon in countries right across Europe, where we pay corporate tax amounting to hundreds of millions of euros.
Amazon EU Sarl and AWS EMEA Sarl have established branches including in the UK, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland and Belgium. We report directly to the local tax authorities in countries where we have established branches the revenues on sales made to customers through those branches, and the associated expenses and taxes.
Corporate tax is based on profits, not revenues, and last year our profits were low as we continued to invest heavily across Europe. We’ve invested more than €215 billion since 2010, and much of that investment is in infrastructure and research that has created many thousands of jobs, generates significant local tax revenue, and supports small and medium enterprises with programmes like Fulfilment by Amazon.
Last year, we opened several new sites across Europe, and we now have more than 220,000 permanent employees across the region. Many of these employees are based at our operations sites, where we offer a variety of roles, from robotics engineers and finance managers through to employees picking and packing orders for our customers. These are some of the most advanced workplaces of their kind in the world, and the people who work there receive competitive pay and a comprehensive benefits package from day one, including a retirement savings plan and healthcare, medical and life insurance.
There are now more than 275,000 small and medium enterprises across Europe selling on Amazon, using our services to reach new customers and grow their businesses. We’ve invested more than 20 billion in European SMEs since 2020, including more than eight billion in 2022 alone, and third-party sellers now account for around 60% of products sold on our stores, achieving tens of billions of euros in sales annually. We estimate that more than 650,000 people are currently employed across our EU and UK third-party seller network as a direct consequence of their business with Amazon.
