One Direction Paid £8.2m In Tax Last Year, Shaming Britian's Biggest Businesses

Britain's most successful boyband One Direction paid at least £8.2m in tax last year, enough to fund 370 junior nurses, 260 secondary school teachers and 5 new primary schools.

The foursome, whose fifth member Zayn Malik quit earlier this year, earned an impressive £73.7m from their musical exploits and popular live gigs.

Their contribution dwarfs that of social network Facebook which paid just £4,327 in corporation taxes last year, despite boasting about increasing advertising revenues and over a billion active users.

Trade publication Music Business Worldwidefound that One Direction's accounts for 2014 showed a "pre-tax" profit of £45.4m "post-tax" profit of £34.98m.

The group paid £10.47m to HMRC in taxation in 2014 of which £8.24m was paid in UK corporation tax.

In total, One Direction paid 23% of its pre-tax profit to the UK taxman.

In contrast, Facebook posted a pre-tax loss on its UK operations minimising its tax obligations.

One Direction make millions from live performances

Other businesses who have paid less tax than the boyband include AstraZeneca, the pharmaceuticals giant, which paid zero corporation tax last year despite profits of over £3bn.

An investigation conducted last year by the FT found a fifth of Britain's biggest firms paid no corporation tax at all.

Here's What One Direction's Taxes Could Buy