Wal-Mart Buys its Way into the Hearts of Politicians in Key States

Wal-Mart has an open season on middle-class taxpayers.
Never having the pleasure to shop the grand junk barn for bargains, chances are I never will.  Overall PHX property taxes increased anywhere from 70-170% since last year. 

No new sidewalks, roads or services. Yet the 2007 Phoenix Metro phone directory lists (33) Wal-Mart outlets, mostly super-centers.

pj—and what do your two references have to do with anything.  No substance and I suppose there are no other entitties in Phoenix.

I Can See Why You Don’t Post More Often, Sage

“...what do your two references have to do with anything?” ~The Sage

Maybe you should get out of your cave a little more often.

It’s happening all over the country.  According the the Wisconsin State Department of Revenue, Wal-Mart owes $17 million in taxes due to its use of the REIT.

It’s seems that “rolling back the prices,” means “rolling back the taxes” as well.  It’s Wal-Mart’s way of sticking it to the “little” people.

“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” ~Leona Helmsley

Well now ScrewedbyWal-mart, if you would take the time to actually do some homework you would also post the rest of the facts.

1.  Wisconsin is “accusing” Walmart of owing back taxes because of the use of the REIT.  It’s purely that.. an accusation… and unfounded at that.

2.  The practice of using REITS is well known LEGAL tax strategy employed by MANY companies.  The key point here being LEGAL TAX STRATEGY.  According to some of the stories I have read states often lose their attacks on REIT strategies for the very same reason… they are legal.

3.  Wisconsin (and other states) lawmakers are looking at changing the laws to require “combined” reporting in order to close this “loophole”.

4.  If this is considered a “loophole” then you are in fact acknowleding that until the laws are changed that this is a proper and LEGAL practice, otherwise why do you have to change the laws?

Sometimes logic and full disclosure of the facts fails you make your brain.

This is the part where Mary evades the IRS memos to businesses on REIT tax shelter abuses.

WalMart- We claimed REIT tax shelters as “LEGAL TAX STRATEGY” because nobody had the resources to begin a prosecution. Now we have been found out and the states are after us for years of tax evasion. Thank God our friends in the White House control the IRS and won’t let them prosecute us. Our donations to the Bush campaigns are paying off.

“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” ~Leona Helmsley

Exactly right ScrewedbyWal-mart.

SanDiegoView --
Sometimes I read some of your stupid and rambling posts,
(though not often as they have no substantive value).  However you make a statement above “...the states are after us for years of tax evasion. ...”

Would you please state one state that has filed a suit agains WM for “TAX EVASION”?  Are you sure you know the legal meaning? 

I am not sure of the Leona Helmsley quote (nor do I care), my point is this --Did you know that no corporation or business pay taxes!!!!! Think about that.

Wal-Mart is the Poster Child of Greedy (but legal) Business Practices!

According to Revenue Department lawyer Mark Zimmer, the world’s largest retailer is not paying its fair share of taxes that support public schools, local police and fire departments and the highways it uses to transport what it sells in Wisconsin.

As a result, Wal-Mart shifts the burden of paying for those services “to individuals and small businesses who are unable to set up such elaborate mechanisms,” Zimmer told the Tax Appeals Commission, which is considering the matter.

A representative of Kohl’s Corp., Menomonee Falls, which owns department stores across the nation, said it does not use the tactic. A Sears spokesman said it also does not use the strategy.

I might question both Kohl’s and Sears on this.  It makes little difference to me whether a company is personally using the REIT scheme or whether it deals with a third party mall developer who is using the tactic.  The net result is the same. Stores are being expanded into new markets, corporate taxes are being avoided, and the rest of the tax payers are left holding the bag!

When all of the information about the use of REITS to avoid taxes sees the full light of day, this will come back to bite Wal-Mart on the ass just like the ILC issue.

“Would you please state one state that has filed a suit agains WM for “TAX EVASION”?’
Sage sings a WalMart worship hymn-

North Carolina.

Wal-Mart Tax Evasion Strategies Revealed in Court Documents

http://www.progressivestates.org/content/699/auto-emissions-standards-schip-continued-and-wal-marts-tax-evasion

Wal-Mart is currently in court in North Carolina, seeking to force a refund of the $30.2 million it claims the state owes it for improperly assessing corporate income tax. Wal-Mart has been using a “captive REIT” strategy to distort the company’s true net income, and in the process cutting its state taxes by over 20% over one four-year period. Wal-Mart also sought – and was denied – a similar refund in Louisiana.

In 1995, the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department began an audit of WMR, a subsidiary of Wal-Mart created in 1991. Suspicion had arisen that Wal-Mart was using WMR as a trademark holding company for the sole purpose of withholding state tax. Though WMR ceased to exist as a separate entity as of February 1997, when it merged back into Wal-Mart, New Mexico completed its investigation and issued assessments in 1998. On May 1, 2006, a hearing officer upheld the assessment of $11,630,226 in corporate income tax against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

WalMart- So what if we are tax cheats? What are you the little people going to do about it?  Sage doesn’t mind paying the difference that we scam from the taxpayer suckers. The multitude of state prosecutions against us can be appealed endlessly in the courts for years and besides… for the next 15 months we have Bush, the IRS, NLRB and the Dept. of Labor in our pocket.

Remember Sage-

“...what do your two references have to do with anything?” ~Sage

“Sometimes I read some of your stupid and rambling posts,
(though not often as they have no substantive value)."~Sage

“When someone sings his own praises, he always gets the tune too high.” ~Mary H. Waldrip

God gives grace to the humble.

“Did you know that no corporation or business pay taxes!!!!! Think about that.”
Sage from a Montana county tax advisers club-

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/article/0,,id=97384,00.html

http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/corp_inc.html

Many of us figured that we did not have to pay either.

Sage,

“Did you know that no corporation or business pay taxes!!!!! Think about that.”

Don’t waste your breath with this, these yahoos can’t understand things like ‘Only human beings can pay taxes’!!  It is hard for them to fathom that money, belongs to PEOPLE and so PEOPLE pay taxes, and that the tax burden flows downhill to the lowest denominator, higher taxes mean higher prices, which puts the tax burden on the shopper, not the corporation!!

To show you an example of what goofy things people can come up with: I was talking to a guy the other day, trying to explain the “Fair Tax” and how it would get rid of the IRS, his response was “But, you can’t eliminate the IRS, because that would put a bunch of people out of work”!!  To me, that would be like saying, “But, you can’t change to cars, because that would put a bunch of buggy makers out of work”!!

Idiots, one and all!!

SDV & Screwed --
I just cannot believe you two can be so stupid as to not read a post made and answer it.  SDV, you did not answer my post but went into your usual off subject tirade.  Screwed tried to answer for SDV and “screwed” it up.

I will try and make brief—screwed by makes ref to a revenue dept lawyer, giving the impression it was a federal lawyer, it was NOT, but merely a state lawyer.

All of the cases both listed do not charge WM with “Tax Evasion”.  Yes they might try to close the loop-hole but a non-substantive accusation will not stand.  (I have written legalize for many years and you two (SDV& Screwed) amaze me that you do not understand english as presented in a written word form.  I would love to tear you two up in a court of law—not what goes on this site as truth.

AS to the taxes being paid—no corporation every pays takes and though at times I have disagreed with RDS, he is absolutely correct in his post above.  Only “homo-sapiens” pay takes, not inanimate creatures of the state such as corporations.  They are merely transfer agents, the taxes are built into the cost of goods sold.

AS RDS mentioned above and as I have posted many times,
read the “Fair Tax” book, study it and then tell me a better system that will work.  If any of you have studied the income tax and the 16th ammendment, you will know how it was fraudently approved.

Now before you two and KenV start saying I am a WM supporter you should all know I am not.  I am neither for not against WM.  I present only facts, and that is why I am The Sage.  I don’t have time to post, but when I do read exactly what I write and you will become informed and knowledgeable.  I will close with this—having studied all the presidential candates, I am firmly convinced only Dr. Ron Paul can preserve our Constitution and Republic. May our Lord bless each of you, even if I don’t agree.

Sage in:I have written legalize for many years-LEGALIZE??And your amazed when people have difficulty understanding english (?) in the written word form???REALLY?I would love to see you LEGALIZE vs,SDV and Screwed in a court of law,Sage-I’d even pay for admission to that command performance!

You’re Approaching the BS Quotient of RDS, Sage!

““Did you know that no corporation or business pay taxes!!!!! Think about that.” ~The Sage

“I present only facts, and that is why I am The Sage.”

“They [corporations] are merely transfer agents, the taxes are built into the cost of goods sold.” ~The Sage

I thought corporations don’t pay any taxes.  If this were so, then there would be nothing to “build into” the cost of goods sold.  But isn’t this the way it really works?  Wal-Mart “rolls back its taxes” so that it can “roll back the cost of the goods it sells.  To all of the average Joe Schmucks who shop there, Wal-Mart looks like the hero.

And “transfer agent?” Is that one of your “legalese” terms for someone who shifts their tax burden onto someone else?  While you may have written some “legalese,” you don’t tell us in what context.  You might have been more convincing if you knew how to spell the word correctly. 

“I would love to tear you two up in a court of law.”

Did I doze off and miss the part where you told us what law school you graduated from?  You are a lawyer, aren’t you “Sage?”

And I think I may have pointed this out before, but it bears repeating since your brought the subject up Sage.  How smart can you be if you’re backing Ron Paul?  I’ll tell you how smart… about as smart as RDS.  He’s backing Ron Paul too.  I predict that the percentage of the popular vote Ron Paul will get in the 2008 election, will be roughly equivalent to your IQ.

Did the Cat Suddenly Get Your Tongue, “Sage?”

“Closing loopholes is never a walk in the park, and corporate interests, who have held powerful sway in Bush tax policy outcomes, won’t fold gently.” ~Jared Bernstein

“CBO reports that corporate income tax revenue rose 168%, 2003-06, to $354bn. Corporate profits have soared in the 2000s - apparently the tax code hasn’t hurt them so badly after all - and higher than expected corporate tax receipts explain 75% of the upside surprise to the IRS tax coffers in recent years.” ~Jared Bernstein

The corporate what?

The Bush treasury department recently called for a major overhaul of the system of corporate taxation in the US.

The corporate what?

There’s no question that the corporate tax code needs a major rewrite…” ~Jared Bernstein

The corporate what?

For more on what Jared Bernstein had to say on corporate taxation, you can check out the full article yourself.

According to a U.S. Treasury department report, “our current system for taxing businesses and multinational companies has developed in a patchwork fashion spanning decades, resulting in a web of tax rules…

If you decide to incorporate your small business, you can choose the S corporation, C corporation or LLC model.  There’s no need to explain the advantages and disadvantages of each of these to you “Sage” because in addition to being a licensed lawyer, you are also a corporate tax specialist.  You did say you were a corporate tax specialist didn’t you?  I guess I dozed off again?

Corporations don’t pay any taxes?  I think the key word here is any. You have to be more specific. If you and your “brilliant” highly-regarded peer RDS, are talking about income taxes, that’s one thing, but when your make blanket statements like: “no corporation or business pay taxes,” it makes you sound more like a simpleton than a “Sage.” Perhaps you should think about that!

Screwedby,

Again, you missed the point, but that’s not unusual!!

But, I guess you think that because something is labeled “corporate tax”, it must mean that the corporation pays it!!  Who pays these:

“Gasoline taxes”, must then be paid by gasoline, right?  And, “Highway Use taxes”, must be paid by Highways, and “Liquor taxes” must be paid buy beer, wine and whiskey!!  When a tax bill comes to your house for ‘Real Estate Taxes”, who pays the bill, YOU (a person), or your house (an object)?

Let’s See If I Follow Your Warped “Logic”, RDS

So what you’re saying RDS is that corporations like Wal-Mart have the luxury and the means to pass along state taxes, property taxes, etc. to the consumers in the prices of the things they sell?  So people like you are paying Wal-Mart’s tax obligations?

So if Wal-mart can “lower it’s tax bill,” then it won’t have to pass as much on to consumers like you.  Is that it?

Isn’t the end result the same?  Somehow Wal-Mart and other corporations are wiggling out of their tax responsibilities (legally of couse) and cheating the local, state and federal government out of tax revenues that could be used for schools, health care, fire and police protection etc.

Just answer a few simple Yes/No questions, RDS?

Are you in favor of Communism?  Yes/No

Is China a Communist Country?  Yes/No

Does China consider Taiwan to
be a renegade?  Yes/No

Has the U.S. vowed to defend
Taiwan in the event of a military
move by China?  Yes/No

Has China been going through
a massive military build-up in
the past 7 years?  Yes/No

Has China supplied rogue nations
like Iran with military hardware or
expertise?  Yes/No

Does China still engage in
Human Rights abuses, particularly
in Tibet?  Yes/No

Does China unfairly manipulate
its currency, giving it an unfair
trade advantage in the “global
economy?” Yes/No

Is China engaged in intellectual
copyright theft and engaged in
selling counterfeit name brand
merchandise around the world?  Yes/No

Are many of China’s factories
run by the state, or more precisely
by the Chinese military?  Yes/No

Should Wal-Mart or any American
corporation be doing business with
China?  Yes/No

Screwedy (post of 10/30?2:21pm)
Prey or Pray tell, what does your post of questions have to do in relation to the subject of corporations not paying taxes. Obviously you don’t know how they pay taxes.  Did you ever own a corporation?  If you did then you should know the answer. I am sorry screwedby but your IQ is no where near the height of mine.  I do not mean to brag (but perhaps I will just a little in this post) but I have a very high IQ. You do understand IQ has nothing to do with lots of schooling and/or academic degrees.

As to spelling words, I admit I don’t always double check the spelling in what I write—and neither do you for I have also found mistakes in your posts.  I don’t mention them, and I recall only one time I took a poster to task on a word and it was, KenV, and then I would have not done so except that he had made a remark about another persons spelling.  May I again pat my self on the back and state that, I have a teaching certificate to teach typing (before computers came in vogue) and I am sure you know the requistes for taking and passing the test.

Try and have a Blessed Day Screwedby, and I am sure our loving Lord knows you do need one.

Apparently you do not believe in our Constitution, however you enjoy one of its rights by being able to write and critize those with whom you disagree.  Find me another presidential candidate (either party) who is a strict constitutionalist and I will vote for him/her.

Screwedby,

“So people like you are paying Wal-Mart’s tax obligations?”

You got it, but I don’t think you realize it!!  Everytime I make a purchase at Wal-Mart, I am helping to pay their tax bill!! A portion of the price, is to cover taxes!!  There is no LUXURY to Wal-Mart to pass along taxes to consumers, EVERY business does THIS!!  Taxes come out of income, which is sales, without sales, they have NO income and thus NO money!!  Just like YOU pay YOUR taxes out of YOUR income, therefore, the customers who purchase things from the place you work, actually are the ones who pay YOUR taxes for YOU, because without their purchases, your company would make NO money and therefore not be able to pay you!!  I find it hard to believe you can’t grasp this simple concept!!

If you were a renter, you may think you don’t pay property taxes, but, you are paying, property taxes, even though you don’t realize it, those taxes are added into your rent, understand yet?

I do not answer YES/NO questions, because unlike you, I believe things are not all black or white!!  Sometimes things can be one thing and another at the same time!!

For example, bills with “pork” in them, if a bill has 1% ‘good’ things in it and 99% “pork”, and a congressman votes against it, is he against the ‘good’ things or the “pork”?  And, if he votes against the bill, is he ANTI “Good” things?  Don’t forget with a ‘vote’, it is either YES/NO!!

Another thing I find hard to believe, is that you think the government is screwed up, yet think they deserve all the money they squeeze out of people!!

<b<Way to Dodge the Questions, RDS!</b>

“I do not answer YES/NO questions...” ~RDS

That might mean you’d have to commit or take a stand, wouldn’t it?  You’re too slimy to do that RDS.  You’d rather twist and spin and double talk your way out of something after you’ve put both your feet into your mouth.

Truth is a relative concept to you, isn’t it?  “Sometimes things can be one thing and another at the same time!!” Wasn’t it you who once criticized Bill Clinton for his relativism?  It all depends on how you define the words “no” and “not” right?

I’m not talking about “truth” (notice the small “t"), or how some people perceive the same things differently.  Granted, there can be many “truths” using this standard.  I’m talking about Truth (notice the capital “T").  There is only one Truth!  Either many Chinese factories are being run by the Chinese government/military or they aren’t.  Either China is considered to have a Communist form of government or it doesn’t.  China is either building up its military capabilities or it isn’t.  China is either unfairly manipulating its currency to its advantage or it isn’t.  It’s just this simple.

Nothing… and Everything, Sage!

My list of questions doesn’t have anything to do with how corporations are taxed or “not taxed.”

But the questions have everything to do with seeing the tangled web Wal-Mart and other like-minded corporations are weaving when they partner with China.

“Apparently you do not believe...”

The only thing that is apparent is that you don’t know what I believe or don’t believe.

...and it was, KenV...

Do you really want me in this?

Is It Worth the Energy, Ken?

“Do you really want me in this?”

Jump in Ken, but only if you feel up to the challenge of matching the “sharp” wits of The Sage and RDS.  Then again, you might want to conserve your “cyber ink.”

Screwedby,

The problem with my answering those questions, is not that I wouldn’t be willing to answer them, but rather, how you would twist them into something else!!  You would make it sound like I was some kind of ‘commie’ and backed the overthrow of the U.S., because I shop at Wal-Mart!!  All one has to do is look at Russia, they were communist and built up their military, yet never once attacked us!!  Now, they are not the same as they were, things change over time!!  We just believe that it is better to work with China in ‘friendship’ and expose them to ‘capitalism’, than put up a wall and ‘shut them out’!!  There have been thousands of revolts against the communist government in China by the people and things are changing there, isn’t that the better way to go, so others won’t have to think about running to Canada?

Screwedby as usual you never answer anything (see my post of 10/30) yet you come back with more of your insipid remarks.

All who read these posts can make the judgements by themselves relative to what you are Remember one thing that “The Sage” is in a category of his own of being righteous and considerate of his fellow beings.  The Sage as written is neither for nor against WM and all of my posts so attribute to same.

All who read do try and have a Blessed Dayand you don’t have to worry about the ghosts until next year!!!

Thanks for the News Bulletin!

“The Sage” is in a category of his own...”

Now you’re speaking of yourself in the third person?  There is help out there, “Sage.”

Sage is at best the tossed smoke out the window of a speeding hearse on its way to walmart’s funeral. Arrogance and foolishness breeds the exact type of comments you leave here Sage.

For the “Doubting Thomases”, out there (namely, our very own Tommy B.), regarding Dr. Ron Paul - try THIS on for size!

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/