It's Tax Day! And while the rest of us have to pay our own taxes, Wal-Mart has figured out a way to get all of us to pick up their tab.
New research from Citizens for Tax Justice and Change to Win has discovered the trick -- by exploiting loopholes in the tax code, Wal-Mart managed to skip out on $2.3 billion in state taxes between 1999 and 2005.
(Yes, that's "billion" with a B.)
How does that effect the states where those taxes were supposed to be paid? To take one example -- Wisconsin -- Wal-Mart managed to work things out so that they only paid $3 million in taxes there on profits of $852 million between 2000 and 2003. That's a real tax rate of just 0.35 percent -- compared to the 7.9 percent that corporations who do business in Wisconsin are supposed to pay.
So if Wal-Mart hadn't skipped out on its taxes, what could the states have paid for with that money? Just with what they avoided paying in 2005, Wal-Mart could have paid for:
- health coverage for 318,440 uninsured children; or
- 11,108 new firefighters to save lives; or
- new classrooms for 21,963 elementary school students; or
- 2 million newborn puppies to slake Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott's unholy hunger to feast upon the innocent*
Want to learn more about Wal-Mart's tax dodge? Here's more info (PDF format), including information on how much Wal-Mart has taken your state for. Here's the press release from Citizens for Tax Justice, too (also PDF). And if you want to take action, you can join a Tax Day protest - they're being held at post offices across the country tonight.
* Note: That last one is made up. We're pretty sure that Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott does not actually feast upon newborn puppies.
Pretty sure.
Comments (3)
Comments posted to CtW Connect are the sole property of the individual posting them, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Change to Win, its affiliated unions, or its leadership.
Tax loophole does not equal scam. You use tax "loopholes" when you claim deductions on your personal income taxes. Taxpayers are entitled to deduct anything lawfully allowed.
By paying less in taxes, Wal-Mart can pay their employees more and charge less on their products. This creates savings for you and me when we shop there. Why would you want to pay more?
If corrupt state governments are having money problems, maybe they should cut useless services instead of whining about Wal-Mart. You know very well that there isn't a state in the union that upon suddenly finding a few million dollars would actually spend it on health coverage, new firefighters, or new classrooms.
Posted by noone on April 17, 2007 at 3:05 PM
Posted on April 17, 2007 at 3:05 PM
Thats right Im a piece of s**t. So what. At least I have $2.3 billion dollars.
Posted by Walmart on April 17, 2007 at 3:41 PM
Posted on April 17, 2007 at 3:41 PM
By paying less in taxes, Wal-Mart can pay their employees more
That's the funniest thing I've read all day! Noone should quit his job in Wal*Mart's PR department and try out for Last Comic Standing.
Posted by debris on April 17, 2007 at 11:10 PM
Posted on April 17, 2007 at 11:10 PM