Wal-Mart is the largest corporation in America, according to Fortune 500. According to Good Jobs First, Wal-Mart recently posted earnings of $350 billion in annual revenue and reported a profit of $11 billion (with a b).
One thing is clear about Wal-Mart: they don’t like to spend money. My mom always said, “That’s how the rich stay rich.” I guess she was right.
On its hike to the top, Wal-Mart has dodged fair pay with illegal workers at more than 61 stores in 2003 and followed it up in 2005, though Wal-Mart executives (of course) swear that they don’t know a thing about it.
In yet another blow to its image, an investigation of Wal-Mart’s local property tax records indicates that Wal-Mart systematically seeks to minimize its payment of taxes that support public schools and government services. Based on a large national sample of Wal-Mart stores and a review of all of its distribution centers open as of the beginning of 2005, Good Jobs First, a self-described “national policy resource center for grassroots groups and public officials, promoting corporate and government accountability in economic development and smart growth for working families” has concluded that Wal-Mart has filed assessment challenges at more than one-third of its facilities around the country. Additionally, Good Jobs First reports that, at many facilities, there have been appeals in multiple years, totaling more than 2,100 property tax challenges nationwide (you can download the report here as a pdf).
It seems that Wal-Mart doesn’t want to pay its fair share.
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