STARBUCKS sparked fresh fury after paying just £4.5million tax last year on £162million profits. Its bill was 2.8 per cent, despite vows to pay more.

Brits were urged to boycott the coffee chain. MP Dame Margaret Hodge said: “People should stop using Starbucks until they pay their fair share.”

Accounts for the year to last October show Starbucks UK paid £4.5m corporation tax on its European profits, which are channelled here — with breaks for share payments and unspecified “expenses”.

Campaigners say the US coffee chain’s complex set-up — which sees it regularly move money internally — makes it easier to reduce its bill.

Robert Palmer, of Tax Justice Network, said: “What we need to do is fix the system that allows these companies to slash tax bills.

"This is happening while hard-working people are expected to pay theirs.”

It emerged in 2012 that Starbucks paid £8.6million of UK corporation tax in 14 years. It later moved its Euro HQ from Amsterdam to London, boasting it would then pay more.

But Tory MP Simon Clarke said the latest row will lead to many questioning the current tax system, adding: “The rest of us would be delighted to pay three per cent.”

Starbucks said it “pays all its taxes and meets all international tax standards and regulations”.

It added that it was “paying more tax to the UK Exchequer than under our previous structure”.