Walmart slams Amazon tax payments in corporate catfight
Corporate giants Walmart and Amazon took aim at one another on Thursday, in an escalating fight over worker benefits and tax payments.
After Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos may have taken a jab at rival Walmart in his annual letter to shareholders, a Walmart executive struck back on Twitter, asking its rival to pay its tax bill, tagging Bezos and using similar language.
As previously reported by FOX Business, paid zero dollars in federal income tax in 2018, according to filings with the SEC – despite nearly doubling its profits.
Amazon has refuted that claim, however.
“Amazon pays all the taxes we are required to pay in the U.S. and every country where we operate, including paying $2.6 billion in corporate tax and reporting $3.4 billion in tax expense over the last three years,” the company said. “Corporate tax is based on profits, not revenues, and our profits remain modest given retail is a highly competitive, low-margin business and our continued heavy investment.”
Walmart said it paid more than $3 billion in federal taxes.
Walmart was responding to Bezos’ letter, where he challenged his “top retail competitors” who “know who [they] are” to match its employee benefits and $15 minimum wage. He even went a step further urging competitors to up the ante with a $16 minimum wage.
Amazon raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour late last year, following a campaign of pressure from Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The company has also said it would work with Congress to change the federal minimum wage.
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Sanders has similarly targeted Walmart, which pays a minimum wage of $11 per hour -- implemented in January 2018. The company has not committed to implementing a $15 minimum wage.
