Snap said media reports claiming it had set up a new international headquarters in the UK were “not true”, although it did admit to changing how it operates its business in the country.

The Snapchat maker said it has only one headquarters, which is in Venice, California, “and many offices throughout the world”.

The statement said: “Going forward, we will bill our advertising revenue from the UK (and a few other countries) through a UK entity. This allows us to pay taxes in the UK, which we believe is part of being a good local partner as we grow our business.”

“We want to pay taxes in the countries where we sell advertising, and this is an important step in building the infrastructure to achieve that goal,” it added.

Snap opened its first overseas office in London in late 2015, and now has 75 employees, up from six a year ago.

According to the Financial Times report which said London was the new HQ, Snap was going to open a new site near its current office and hire more employees, including engineers.

The report also quoted Claire Valoti, general manager of Snap Group in the UK, as stating: “We believe in the UK creative industries. The UK is where our advertising clients are, where more than 10 million daily Snapchatters are, and where we’ve already begun to hire talent.”

The choice of the UK is unusual in that tech giants like Apple, Google, Facebook and many others prefer neighbouring countries like Ireland and the Netherlands with lower-tax regimes.

Snap, which has yet to post a profit, is in the earliest stages of generating revenue outside the US and is unlikely to have significant tax liabilities as yet, FT noted..