Amazon pays corporate tax in countries across Europe amounting to hundreds of millions of euros every year. We operate in full compliance with local tax laws everywhere, and we regularly share information about our tax contributions and business operations. Here are four key points that help explain how our business structure and operations contribute to European tax revenues.
1. Luxembourg is our European headquarters
In 2003, we established our European headquarters in Luxembourg. This country offers a stable regulatory environment, multilingual workforce, strong rule of law, and central location within Europe—making it an ideal hub for coordinating operations across the continent. Our teams in Luxembourg oversee critical pan-European logistics while also managing regional roles across finance, legal, human resources, technology, and corporate strategy. Over the past decade, Amazon has invested more than €10 billion in Luxembourg, with an estimated cumulative contribution of over €3.5 billion to Luxembourg’s GDP.
2. We pay tax where we operate
Discussions about Amazon's corporate tax often focus on specific entities in Luxembourg, but don't account for the local tax contributions Amazon makes in countries across Europe through our local entities or branches. For example, Amazon EU Sarl and AWS EMEA Sarl — our main stores and cloud services entities based in Luxembourg—operate through branches in countries such as the UK, Germany, Spain, France and Italy. This structure ensures we pay tax in each country where we operate.
3. Corporate income tax is only one part of our total tax contribution
Corporate income tax represents one component of Amazon's total tax contribution in Europe. In 2024, Amazon's total European tax contribution exceeded $22 billion, including $5.32 billion in taxes borne—such as corporate income tax, payroll taxes, and property taxes—and $16.93 billion in taxes collected on behalf of governments, including VAT, sales taxes, and payroll taxes collected from employees. This distinction matters because it reflects how modern economies actually generate tax revenue. On average, countries generate only 12% of their revenue from corporate income taxes, compared to consumption taxes which raise 31% of revenue. We invest in industry-leading tax collection and compliance systems to facilitate global tax collection, recognising that the taxes we pay and the taxes we collect are both important parts of Amazon's economic impact in the communities we serve.
4. We invest heavily in Europe, which affects taxable profits
Corporate tax is based on profits, not revenues. The substantial investments we make increase our expenses, reduce our net income, and ultimately affect the amount of corporate income tax we pay. Since 2010, we've invested more than €320 billion in Europe and much of that investment is in infrastructure and research that has created many thousands of jobs, generated significant local tax revenue, and supported small and medium entreprises.
We recognise that taxes are an important part of Amazon's economic impact in the communities we serve, and we remain committed to operating in full compliance with all applicable tax laws while continuing to invest in Europe's economic future. As we publish our Luxembourg statutory filings, we do so as part of our ongoing commitment to transparency and our belief that open dialogue with policymakers, tax authorities, and the public strengthens trust and supports a stable, principled tax system that benefits everyone.
