Netflix has been accused of committing “superhighway robbery” by not paying any corporation tax in the UK.

Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge told MPs the taxpayer was “being taken for a ride” by the video streaming service.

Quoting research from the think tank Tax Watch, she said the firm should have paid over £13m in UK tax in 2019 but “deliberately avoided” doing so.

Netflix says it complies with the rules of countries it operates in, adding that taxation reform is needed.

The company said it supported “the OECD’s (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s) proposal for companies to pay more tax in the countries where their operations help generate value”.

Responding for the government in the debate, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Jesse Norman, told MPs he could not comment on individual companies.

But, he added, under international tax rules the UK was already entitled to tax the share of a company’s profits that relate to production activities.

And he said that creative industries made an important contribution to the economy.

Dame Margaret, who has waged a long-running campaign against big tech firms over alleged tax avoidance, called for the government to extend its new digital services tax to cover video streaming services when it comes into force on 1 April 2020.

The current plan will see the likes of Facebook, Google and Amazon pay 2% of revenues to the Treasury to correct the “misalignment between the place where profits are taxed and the place where value is created”.

The ex-Labour minister said including Netflix would ensure the firm, whose whose hit shows include The Crown, “starts to pay its fair share”.

According to estimates by Tax Watch, Netflix had 11.62 million subscribers in the UK in 2019.

The think tank said this would have generated £1.1bn in income for the company, with an estimated profit of £69m – meaning it should have paid £13m in tax.

In its latest filing with Companies’ House, the UK arm of Netflix said it only made profits of £2.35m in the country.

Dame Margaret, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on responsible taxation, also said Netflix received £924,000 from the UK government via the high-end television tax relief, given to companies that produce television shows in the UK.

She told MPs: “Netflix takes out of the public purse more than it contributes in corporation tax. While Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs fails to collect money from it in corporation tax, the US government is extracting tax from the same profits that it earns here and then hides in unknown tax havens.”

She added: “What is particularly galling is that Netflix actually makes a net profit from the UK taxpayer. In the last two years it has received nearly £1m from the government in tax credits, and that is just the start.

“It is nothing less than superhighway ​robbery. The UK taxpayer is being taken for a ride. We are actually handing over cash while Netflix stashes money offshore.”

‘Create value’

Dame Margaret said that Netflix was “far from the only culprit” and “tax credit abuse is rife in other industries, including film and video games”.

In response, Treasury minister Mr Norman said: “The government does recognise that some multinational businesses have sought to avoid paying their fair share of tax in the UK by entering into contrived arrangements to divert profits to low tax jurisdictions.

“The effect of this is to deprive the Exchequer of revenues needed to fund the public services on which we all rely.

“It’s completely unacceptable, which is why the government has taken robust action designed to inhibit or prevent it.”

He said the government’s digital services tax was designed to target companies that “rely on their users to create value where that value is not recognised under current international tax rules”.

But the new tax was meant to be a “temporary measure pending ​agreement of a long-term global solution, potentially including the United States, that will address the wider challenges posed by digitisation”.

He also reminded MPs that Netflix was “planning to invest about £232m in Shepperton Studios”, near London, which, he said, was “not a trivial act”.

Mr Norman said businesses should be “incentivised” to invest in the UK’s creative economy, and added: “It is equally right that HMRC should subject large businesses to an appropriate level of scrutiny and my understanding is they are actively investigating around half of the UK’s large businesses at any given time.”

Netflix said in a statement: “We believe that international taxation needs reform and support the OECD’s (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s) proposal for companies to pay more tax in the countries where their operations help generate value.

“In the meantime, we comply with the rules in every country where we operate.

“The Tax Watch report has a number of inaccuracies, including that Netflix has a Caribbean-based entity.

“This is no longer the case as we significantly simplified our tax structure last year.

“Netflix continues to invest heavily in the UK – spending more than £400m on local productions in 2019, which helped to create over 25,000 jobs and training placements.”

Joseph Shabalala, who helped introduce the sound of traditional Zulu music to the world, has died aged 78.

The musician was best known as the founder and director of choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, which won five Grammy awards and featured heavily on Paul Simon’s Graceland album.

They also reached number 15 in the UK charts with a cover of Swing Low Sweet Chariot, for the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Shabalala died in hospital in Pretoria, South Africa, the band’s manager said.

“Yes it’s true. Mr Shabalala passed on this morning,” Xolani Majozi told the South Africa Times.

“The group is on tour in the US, but they have been informed and are devastated because the group is family.”

The South African Government paid tribute to the musician in a tweet, saying: “We would like to extend our condolences on the passing of Joseph Shabalala who was the founder of the group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

It added in Xhosa, “Ulale ngoxolo Tata ugqatso lwakho ulufezile.” (Rest in peace, father, your race is complete.)

Born in 1941, Shabalala was the eldest of eight children living on a farm in Tugela, near the town of Ladysmith in South Africa.

“When I was a young boy I dreamt of becoming an educated person; maybe a teacher, doctor or something like that,” he told South Africa’s The Citizen in 2014.

However, he was forced to leave school at the age of 12 when his father died, working on the family farm and, later, in a local factory.

In his spare time, he would sing with friends in a local group called the Blacks.

“The young boys when they get together, they started to sing the songs, until the mamas and the neighbours said, ‘Hey, do it again,'” he told the BBC.

“It was just like that. They were calling, ‘Do it again, do it again’.”

He eventually became the leader and main composer for the choir, fusing indigenous Zulu songs and dances with South African isicathamiya, an a capella tradition that was frequently accompanied by a soft, shuffling style of dance.

They were re-christened Ladysmith Black Mambazo, a name that was significant on several levels: Ladysmith represented their hometown, Black referenced the black oxen that were the strongest on the farm, and Mambazo, from the Zulu word for axe, symbolized the group’s ability to cut down the competition.

A radio performance in 1970 led to a recording contract, and in 1973 they released Africa’s first gold-selling album, Amabutho.

They achieved global recognition after being recruited to sing on Paul Simon’s multi-million-selling Graceland album, most notably on Homeless, a song Shabalala co-wrote with Simon, based on the melody for a traditional Zulu wedding song.

The band joined Simon on his subsequent world tour. In return, he produced their next three albums – with 1987’s Shaka Zulu winning a Grammy for best traditional folk recording.

Shabalala retired from active performance in 2014 shortly after performing at a memorial concert for Nelson Mandela.

He continued to teach traditional choral music, while four of his sons (and one grandson) continued his legacy within Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

The musician was with his wife Thokozile Shabalala, in his final moments, said Xolani Majozi.

As news of his death spread, tributes poured in from around the world.

“My friend, a giant humble man, Joseph Shabalala, passed away this morning,” wrote South African singer Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse on Twitter. “My sincere condolences to his family and friends.”

“I am deeply saddened,” wrote Herman Mashaba, former mayor of Johannesburg. “You will be remembered as a giant of South African music and a pioneer of the industry.”