CA-SU-AL. In an effort to bring down their tax laws in the UK, Facebook decided to give every member of their staff a bonus of £775,000 (R17 million). Yup, that’s right.

The company will pay out a total of around £280 million in bonuses to its UK staffers, parceled out between now and the end of 2018. Through this, Facebook can count the bonuses as taxable expenses and “slash a large amount off the net profit it has to pay corporation taxes on.”

But this is more likely to frustrate the UK who has already been going through transparency issues with the social media company after it was criticised for avoiding tax payments in the UK by diverting sales through Ireland, which has a lower tax rate. Facebook promised more transparency by revamping its tax structure.

This isn’t the first time Facebook has pulled a tax avoidance stunt in the UK – back in 2014 it paid out £35 million in stock awards to UK employees which resulted in a meager £4 300 corporate tax bill even though its revenue was £105 million. But it’s not the only company to take advantage of the tax loop hole – Amazon and other multi-nationals work of a similar arrangement.

But the burden only jumps from the corporation to the employees, who, on an average salary of £210 000, have to pay a 45% tax rate.

[source: newser]