A new report commissioned and published by a tax reform campaign group in the United States has accused Walmart of following a policy of aggressive tax avoidance.
Americans for Tax Fairness have alleged that the US company uses up to 78 subsidiaries and branches in 15 different countries, territories well known for being offshore tax havens.
These subsidiaries exist in countries where there is not a single store, yet are registered as owning at least 25 out of 27 of Walmart’s foreign operations in nations such as the United Kingdom and China, comprising 3,500 overseas stores.
Walmart has apparently transferred the ownership of $45 billion in foreign assets to 22 shell companies registered in Luxembourg since 2011. The company reported it’s tax liability for those Luxembourg entities as less than 1% of the $1.3 billion in profit generated between 2010-2013.
Walmart’s Luxembourg shell companies own $64.2 billion in assets, and in the Netherlands $12.4 billion — 90 percent of WalMart’s international assets, and 37 percent of its total assets, are held in just these two countries.
Overall, the group claims these tax avoidance techniques have saved Walmart $3.5 billion in taxes.
