Exposed: How Walmart Spun an 'Extensive and Secretive Web' of Overseas Tax Havens

[kentuck]

<snip>

Walmart has built a vast, undisclosed network of overseas tax havens—accounting for more than $76 billion of assets—that allows the multinational corporation to shirk public disclosure laws as well as its fair share of both foreign and U.S. taxes, according to a groundbreaking report published Wednesday by Americans for Tax Fairness.

All told, the retail behemoth has established at least 78 subsidiaries in 15 offshore tax havens, none of them publicly reported before. The stunning revelations are based on research conducted by the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, using publicly available documents filed in various countries by Walmart and its subsidiaries.

<snip>
The analysis, titled The Walmart Web: How the World's Biggest Corporation Uses Tax Havens to Dodge Taxes (pdf), shows that Walmart has no fewer than 22 shell companies in Luxembourg—20 established since 2009 and five in 2015 alone. According to the study, Walmart has transferred ownership of more than $45 billion in assets to those subsidiaries since 2011, but reported paying less than 1 percent in tax to Luxembourg on $1.3 billion in profits from 2010 through 2013.

<snip>
Furthermore, the findings have implications beyond just one greedy corporation. In addition to casting light on Walmart's secretive tax avoidance schemes, "the discovery that Walmart has built an extensive web of tax-haven subsidiaries suggests that a range of exotic international tax avoidance strategies are being adapted in new sectors of the economy," the report warns, given that big corporate players in the tax-haven game have historically been high-tech firms, pharmaceutical companies and Wall Street banks.

more at link:


http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/06/17/exposed-how-walmart-spun-extensive-and-secretive-web-overseas-tax-havens

[kentuck]

1. And Walmart is not the only one.

Every Apple computer that is sold in this country should have a tariff on it that would equal the amount of taxes that have been evaded with their tax havens.

[davidpdx]

2. I read this article, but it wasn't at the particular site you linked. It is a good one though

It goes to show how corporations are STILL getting away with hiding money, while little people are getting screwed in the process. Congress passed a set of laws to tighten the tax laws (FACTCA and FBAR), yet it is hurting ordinary Americans Abroad more than it is the corporations.

Those of us who live abroad now have to fill out more paperwork if we have over a certain amount of assets (that amount is debatable depending on who you believe because the laws are confusing. Some believe it is as little as $10,000 others say $50,000). No, this isn't going after rich people. It is going after people who work and save money. We live abroad and save money so we must be like those rich people hiding money.

I have no problem with filing taxes, but the paperwork they are making Americans abroad file is confusing. The extra added bonus is if there is a mistake it's a $10,000 fine. Not chump change for someone who makes what is equivalent to a middle class income in the US. In fact that would be 1/4th of my salary, three months gone.

I love living abroad, but they need to fix this fucking law.