UK finance minister Philip Hammond advocates tax on e-commerce. The so-called Amazon tax should counter unfair competition between online shops and physical shops.
Hammond's statements follow the problems surrounding department store chain House of Fraser, which was recently rescued by Sports Direct. Retailers such as Marks & Spencer and Topshop are also in dire straits.
Online retailers pay less tax
Hammond wants to give the struggling high street a helping hand by introducing new tax rules. Online retailers would pay substantially less tax than their physical competitors. By comparison, House of Fraser paid €33m (£30m) in tax last year on turnover of €897m. Amazon had a turnover of 10 billion euros in Britain, and paid only 36 million euros in tax.
Temporary tax measures
"We want to make sure the tax between companies doing business in the traditional way and those doing business online is fair," Hammond told Sky News.
"That requires us to renegotiate international tax treaties because many of the big online companies are international companies. If we cannot reach an international agreement to do this, we may have to look at temporary tax measures to rebalance the playing field."
