Healey urged to launch £1.5bn ‘Amazon tax’ raid on retailers Szu Ping Chan Thu, October 8, 2026 at 3:00 AM EDT 3 min read AMZN Trade AMZN on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
John Healey should mount a £1.5bn raid on Amazon and other online retailers in the Budget to fund a high-street tax cut, a Labour-linked think tank has said.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), which has helped shape Labour policies, said a new online sales tax could raise billions of pounds for the Chancellor to cut business rates for shops, pubs, restaurants and other high-street businesses.
Andy Burnham has signalled that Labour will ramp up a so-called "Amazon tax" to help fund a tax cut for "businesses that bring social benefit", such as pubs and restaurants.
The IPPR urged the Prime Minister and Chancellor to consider a new 2pc tax on online sales by large retailers and 1pc for click-and-collect purchases that it said would raise at least £1.5bn a year.
Under the think tank's proposals, the first £500,000 of a business's remote sales each year would be exempt in a move designed to protect smaller firms.
It estimates the changes could save smaller businesses an average of around £1,400 a year and larger firms around £2,500.
The proposal comes amid growing concern about the burden of business rates on the high street, with the IPPR arguing that Britain has an unusually heavy reliance on property taxes.
OECD data show property taxes account for 10.5pc of UK tax revenues, compared with an average of 5.1pc.
Business rates alone raise more than £27bn a year.
Aditi Sriram, of the IPPR, said: "Britain's tax system was built for an era when the location where you did business was closely linked to how much business you did. That is no longer the case.
"As people have moved their shopping online, high street shops and restaurants continue to face large, fixed tax bills simply because they need physical premises.
"The Government should shift some of the tax burden from bricks to clicks and use the money to cut bills for the businesses that bring people on to our high streets."
However, executives and retail groups have warned that an online sales tax could push up the cost of living.
The British Retail Consortium has highlighted that high-street retailers occupy a large share of warehouse space and that higher taxes could ultimately be passed on to shoppers through higher prices.
A Treasury spokesman said: "The Chancellor is fully focused on his priorities, which will boost business, help with the cost of living and support people in every postcode.
"As has always been the case, decisions on tax are a matter for the Chancellor to set out at fiscal events, rather than routinely commenting on rumour, speculation or proposals."
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