Facebook UK makes loss

Facebook’s UK business made a loss last year.Facebook also joins the list of those companies which some may accuse of tax dodging as they paid a tax bill of just over £238,000 on sales of £175 million.

The social networking group’s London business reported a pre-tax loss of £13.9 million last year, against a £1.1 million profit in 2010, accounts filed with Companies House showed.

The loss came as Facebook made an estimated UK advertising sales of £175 million last year, according to independent researchers Enders Analysis.

However, the accounts showed that the company’s UK bill for staff costs and wages went from £7.9 million to £24.8 million, even as its workforce increased up only from 81 to 90.

That represents an average pay packet of a massive £275,555 pay per person.

The increased staff costs included a £15 million “share based payment charge”, which is thought to cover employees’ income tax and national insurance on the Facebook shares they received before the company floated in New York in May.

The accounts showed the London office paid £238,317 in tax, down from £424,651 the previous year.

All in all not as profitable as Google, but a pretty stunning return on your advertising expenditure- if you do sponsor their shareholder bubbly.