UK taxpayers want higher levies on big tech companies, survey shows | Tax and spending
Taxpayers want Britain to increase taxes on giant global tech companies such as Facebook owner Meta, Google and Amazon, according to a survey of Britons’ attitudes to corporation tax.
The survey, released on Monday by the Fair Tax Foundation, the organization that certifies businesses for responsible tax behaviour, found 67 per cent of respondents believe the government should levy higher digital services taxes from multinational technology groups “to increase their overall tax contribution in the UK”.
The UK’s digital services tax was introduced in 2020 and is a 2% tax on the revenue of search engine, social media or marketplace companies With sales of £25 million or more than £500 million in the UK globally.
Paid by just a handful of tech firms, this raises around £800 million for the exchequer in 2024-25. accordingly official figures.
But the tax had its critics, including those who claimed it led to the tax. higher fees for paying users.
Predictably, there has also been strong opposition from the US, where president Donald Trump has threatened to impose a “massive tariff” on the UK if it does not reduce taxes on US tech companies.
Fair Tax Foundation research also found that three-quarters of British people would prefer to ‘work’ and ‘shop’ for a business that can prove it pays its fair share of tax.
“This research shows that the UK remains, at its core, a fair tax country,” said Paul Monaghan, the charity’s chief executive. “The UK public care about many issues, but ‘tax fairness’ consistently tops their concerns when it comes to corporate behaviour. They want to see the government do much more to ensure all businesses, both big and small, pay a fair share of tax.”
Each year, the organization surveys around 2,000 adults across Great Britain, and the sample is based on census data collected by the Office for National Statistics.
The results of the questions asked remained reasonably consistent; Support for the digital services tax was 69% in 2025 and 67% in 2026. The report stated that “at least 70% of Britons want to work for a fair tax company” in the last 10-year survey.
