Facebook paid less tax last year than the average British worker – despite making £105million from advertising and other sales.

The social media giant’s UK business handed over just £4,327 in company taxes, while a Briton earning the average salary would have paid more than £5,000 on their income.

The revelations will add to the debate over how to ensure multinational firms such as Facebook – which has claimed that at least a third of UK adults visit its website every day – pay their fair share in each country in which they operate.

No wonder he's so rich: Pictured is Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, whose company's UK arm paid HMRC just £4,327 in corporation tax last year

The company’s 362 UK staff took home an average of £210,000 in pay and bonuses last year, according to its latest accounts.

Facebook’s British arm was able to slash its tax bill by reporting an accounting loss of £28.5million last year, having handed out £35.4million to its workers through a share bonus scheme.

This scheme was worth more than £97,000 on average for each member of staff, the company accounts show.

In contrast to Facebook’s tax payment of £4,327, a single worker on the average UK salary of £26,500 would be liable for £3,180 in income tax and £2,213 in national insurance contributions – a total of £5,393.

The accounts show Facebook’s UK business notched up annual sales of £105million last year, said to be mainly from advertising. This is more than double the previous year’s £49.8million.

Losses also more than doubled from the £11.5million reported a year earlier, thanks to the high share-based payments to staff.

John O’Connell, director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers will be justifiably confused and angry about this low tax bill.

'But the problem lies with our complex tax code, and that is what politicians should address as a matter of urgency. We have to ensure our taxes are simple to eliminate loopholes.’

The revelation is an embarrassment to ministers, including George Osborne, who pledged to crack down on tax-dodging by global firms. The Chancellor has cut corporation tax – it stands at just 21 per cent, down from 28 per cent when he arrived at the Treasury. But he has insisted all companies should pay what they owe.

Facebook is understood to funnel British profits through its international headquarters in Ireland to another organisation registered in the Cayman Islands, a notorious tax haven.

Last year the social media firm’s parent company faced criticism for paying just £1.8million in Irish taxation on more than £2.3billion of global sales.

Other firms such as Starbucks and Amazon have also come under heavy criticism over the amount of corporation tax they pay in Britain.

In response, Mr Osborne announced a so-called ‘Google tax’ on diverted profits, to try to prevent firms shifting earnings overseas.

Labour MP Margaret Hodge, former chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, has complained that Facebook is ‘still refusing to listen to the voice of public opinion’.