Facebook reports UK corporation tax payment of £4.2m after outcry

Facebook (NasdaqGS: FB - news) may have paid substantially more in UK corporation tax last year than the £4,327 it reported in 2014, according to a set of complicated accounts.

While it said Facebook UK incurred a £4.2m tax charge - the sum remained a fraction of the £210m in UK revenue reported by the social network.

Facebook also reported a tax credit within the business of £15.5m. It is unclear whether the figure, which relates to stock options for employees, meant that it effectively paid nothing to the taxman as credits can be used to offset bills.

One tax expert, contacted by Sky News, described the filing at Companies House as a "conspiracy of opacity."

Facebook lodged the figures months after pledging it would stop routing most UK sales through to a profit base in Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) where corporation tax is charged at a lower rate.

The voluntary shake-up of its tax affairs, effective since April, was seen as a response to widespread criticism of its 2014 corporate tax figure which was less than the average UK worker would contribute through income tax and national insurance at the time.

Facebook is among a string of multinational firms criticised over the size of their UK tax bills.

Prime Minister Theresa May has indicated she wants more rigorous tax fairness when it comes to firms operating in the UK.

Facebook said in March that advertising revenue from its largest customers, initiated in Britain, would be taxed in the UK from the start of the 2016/17 financial year.

It was unclear how much more this was expected to raise for HMRC - if anything at all.

Richard Murphy, of Tax Research UK, said the tax notes in the 2015 UK accounts amounted to a "massive exercise in opacity."

He added: "Given that tax is known to be the focus of concern for this company, we are left guessing as to many issues relating to its tax because of a lack of disclosure."

A Facebook spokesman said: "We are proud that in 2015 we have continued to grow our business in the UK and created over 300 new high-skilled jobs.

"The UK is now home to some of the most innovative technologies in the world, including our investment in a high-tech solar-powered plane centre in Somerset that will help bring the internet to remote areas of the world.

"We pay all the taxes that we are required to under UK law."

Ireland is set to appeal against an EU state aid ruling that Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) must pay it £11bn in back taxes .