Shell paid no corporate income tax in the UK in 2018
Oil supermajor Royal Dutch Shell has revealed that it paid no corporate income tax in the UK in 2018, despite earning $731m (£557m) in profit.
Instead, the Anglo-Dutch giant took nearly $115m in tax rebates related to the decommissioning of North Sea oil platforms.
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The firm said that $79m of this was through a refund of income tax due to decommissioning the Brent field, which has been operating for over 40 years.
It added that “the taxable profits of the remaining portfolio were offset by losses brought forward which resulted in no further corporate income tax payments in 2018.”
The figures were disclosed in Shell’s new Tax Contribution Report, an attempt to increase the firm’s transparency.
In 2018, Shell companies paid $10.1 billion in corporate income tax and $5.8 billion in royalties around the world.
It added that it collected $48.2bn in excise duties, sales taxes and similar levies on fuel and other products.
Shell reported an overall tax rate of 32.9 per cent in 2018.
Group chief financial officer Jessica Uhl said: “Shell is committed to compliance. Specifically, we seek to comply with the applicable tax laws in all the countries and locations in which we have a taxable presence.
“Shell was one of the first companies to endorse the B Team responsible tax principles in 2018 because we want to make a meaningful contribution to the shaping of more transparent tax systems.
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“We support an approach to taxation that, in our view, allows companies to help create a sustainable society.”
Shell is one of the region’s biggest producers and supplies around 10 per cent of the UK’s total oil and gas needs.