$76 billion stashed overseas? You bet they can afford a living wage for their employees.
While Wal-Mart refuses to pay their employees a living wage or provide essential benefits, a new report claims they have an
astonishing amount of money hiding overseas:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. owns more than $76 billion of assets through a web of units in offshore tax havens around the world, though you wouldn’t know it from reading the giant retailer’s annual report.
A new study has found Wal-Mart has at least 78 offshore subsidiaries and branches, more than 30 created since 2009 and none mentioned in U.S. securities filings. Overseas operations have helped the company cut more than $3.5 billion off its income tax bills in the past six years, its annual reports show.
Shaving $3.5 billion off their income tax bills? That would be a little more than half of the
$6.2 billion U.S. taxpayers fork out for Wal-Mart employees on public assistance.
So, where is the money?
All of Wal-Mart’s roughly 3,500 stores in China, Central America, the U.K., Brazil, Japan, South Africa and Chile appear to be owned through units in tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands, Curacao and Luxembourg, according to the report from the advocacy group. The union conducted its research using publicly available documents filed in various countries by Wal-Mart and its subsidiaries.
Luxembourg, where they have no stores and pay less than 1% tax rate. What a shame that one of the largest U.S. companies can get away with stashing their money overseas, avoiding taxes while sticking U.S. taxpayers with the bill for their underpaid employees.
Wal-Mart called the report "misleading." You can read the extensive report and the response from Wal-Mart at bloomberg.com.