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'How About Paying Your Taxes?': Walmart Responds To Amazon's Challenge Over Pay (nbcnews.com)
Amazon and Walmart are in war over worker pay -- and now corporate taxes. After Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos on Thursday issued a challenge to other retailers, not naming which ones specifically, to match Amazon's pay and benefits, Walmart snapped right back. From a report: "Today I challenge our top retail competitors (you know who you are!) to match our employee benefits and our $15 minimum wage. Do it! Better yet, go to $16 and throw the gauntlet back at us. It's a kind of competition that will benefit everyone," Bezos wrote in his annual letter to shareholders. "Hey retail competitors out there (you know who you are) how about paying your taxes?" tweeted Walmart's Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs Dan Bartlett on Thursday morning, sharing an article about Amazon paying $0 in federal taxes on more than $11 billion in profits last year.
Isn't it funny how corporate America is joking with each other about how they screw the American people. What a great country that they feel free to do this publicly!
You know how companies declare their profit in their investor meetings? That's a public declaration.
Tax based on that. Or whatever they fill in their tax forms - whichever is greater. No having your cake and eating it too - no more Hollywood accounting and still claiming record income.
Ryan Fenton
The fact that they apparently properly owe $0 in taxes despite $11b in profits might be a failing in the taxation system, but it doesn't mean they aren't paying what they are legally required to. They are clearly using loopholes and the like to dodge what would otherwise be a considerable tax bill, but just because they are doing that does not mean it is actually illegal.
Instead of appealing to Amazon to pay their taxes, they should instead be appealing to Washington to get the taxation laws changed so that this sort of thing can't continue happen.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I'll let F.D.R., the president who signed the first federal minimum wage bill into law comment:
“No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.” (1933, Statement on National Industrial Recovery Act)
Minimum-wage jobs are vital to the smooth functioning of our society, we can't just eliminate them - which is what would happen if all the current employees somehow managed to get better jobs. The average age of minimum wage employees is 30, it's not a bunch of high school kids making spending money after school.
If you really want high school kids to be employable at lower wages - put a lower minimum wage for minors into the law, while requiring a living wage for everyone else. See how long it takes before the kids realize they're being cheated and walk out when the adult working next to them is getting twice the pay for the exact same work.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
With universal healthcare the incentive evaporates for shady businesses to push sub-30 hour work weeks.
"Go Walmart! Can't believe they're on higher ground..."
They are? Amazon is playing by the rules in regards to what taxes they pay just like every single other company I've ever heard of. Otherwise the IRS would be after them big time. The problem with Amazon not paying taxes isn't Amazon, it's our broken tax system.
Meanwhile, for the type of unskilled labor both Walmart and Amazon employ a lot of people for, a $15 minimum wage and decent benefits is extremely generous in the context of what you often see in this sector of our economy. All Walmart does is give their employees a stack of pamphlets explaining how to take advantage of federal and state welfare programs because they know their employees need them.
To put it differently, sure, you can say that Walmart is just playing by the minimum wage rules but they also probably pay as little in taxes as they possibly can as well.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
That is completely ridiculous. It means that if I choose for my job to play the guitar in the park or throw rocks in the pond, I am entitled to a 'living wage' for my work.
Incorrect. If somebody hires you to play guitar in the park or throw rocks in the pond, then that person must pay you a living wage.
I wish some of you, once you put down your pitchforks, would realize the government is basically taking 100% by taxing companies and what they pay employees and then turns around and taxes everything employees pay other people for their services. When is enough enough? People are crazy. I am glad Amazon can function and pay less. Heck I wouldn't be sad if they got paid by the government for creating jobs. Why are you all so backwards and hating companies? Is it because it's the in thing to do? They put the frigging food on the table and the table and the roof over the table. Stop hating them so much. Hate the government for writing a few laws yet taking all this damn money and still allowing our roads to crumble and us to kill broke people in countries with no money while spending trillions.
It apparently blows right over your head that sentiments such as you quoted from FDR extended the great depression for another decade and that Germany and Israel just ran a nice experiment for us with regards to switching from European-style worker laws toward U.S. style levels of regulation instead and demonstrated quite clearly the economic and jobs damage your suggestions cause empirically.
It's amazing, if you stop passing laws either making it illegal to employ the least fortunate people among us (min. wage/living wage) or which discourages getting a job (lengthy unemployment benefits), suddenly people are working and being productive members of society.
You must really hate poor people if you're advocating for making it illegal for them to have a job. If you don't think that's what you're doing, then you don't understand economics. You might as well advocate for a law declaring everyone must have a personal fusion powerplant. That'll "solve" any energy issues in the same way.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.