Amazon has been accused of continuing to underpay corporation tax in the UK despite nearly tripling the payment from a key British division to £14m.

Amazon UK Services, the company’s warehouse and logistics operation that employs more than two-thirds of its 27,500-plus UK workforce, said its corporation tax contribution had risen by nearly £10m in the year to December 2018 from the £4.7m paid in 2017.

The group’s annual filing at Companies House revealed that sales rose 18% to £2.3bn and pretax profits 4% to £75.4m for the division, which accounts for more than a quarter of the group’s UK sales. Amazon does not reveal profits or corporation tax payments for its entire UK operation, which would include its retail business as well as warehouses and logistics.

Richard Murphy, professor of practice in international political economy at City, University of London, said: “If it wants us to believe it is paying the right amount of tax it has got to give enough information. No accounting number makes sense in isolation.”

However, Amazon tried to fend off accusations of tax underpayment by issuing a separate statement on Tuesday saying it paid £220m of direct taxes in the UK across its entire British operation last year including employer’s national insurance, business rates, corporation tax and stamp duty.

It did not break this down to reveal the amount of corporation tax paid by its UK operation, which had total sales of $14.5bn (£10.9bn) last year, according to the group’s annual report.

Amazon has revealed previously that it paid more than £63m in business rates in 2018 and its statement issued on Tuesday made clear that it paid more than that again in employer’s national insurance. That indicates that Amazon pays less than £94m in other direct taxes, including corporation tax and stamp duty, across its entire UK operation.

Murphy said he would expect Amazon to pay at least £100m in corporation tax alone at its UK business, assuming that it made profits at a similar rate to the group as a whole. “There is clearly an underpayment to explain,” he said, calling the payment by Amazon UK Services “the square root of diddly-squat”.

Amazon said in 2015 that it would stop using controversial corporate structures that diverted sales and profits away from the UK, following a clampdown on the practice with the introduction of George Osborne’s diverted profits tax.

Murphy said the company would be under pressure to publish more transparent accounts as it was becoming normal practice for companies to “reveal and explain” their tax bills.

Paul Monaghan, chief executive the Fair Tax Mark, which accredits businesses which are fair and transparent in the tax they pay, said: “The numbers sound like pennies down the back of the couch.” He said Amazon UK Services’ £14m UK current tax bill did not compare well with the Fair Tax Mark company Lush, which paid only about £1m less in tax on profits of £23.4m, less than a third of that made by the Amazon division.

Amazon said in a statement: “As we continue to hire and grow in the UK, we help fund public services and infrastructure throughout the country. We do this through the taxes that are collected by the Exchequer as a consequence of our activities in the UK.”

Amazon said it had direct investments in its UK operations of more than £18bn between 2010 and last year, including building new offices and warehouses as well as paying salaries to UK employees.