Walmart owners look to slash federal tax payments

Black Friday is the single biggest shopping day of the year. And this Friday, all eyes will be on Walmart, the nation's single biggest retailer and employer. But while the planned protests at 1,000 of the chain's 4,000 locations will keep the focus on Walmart's below-industry standard pay to its 1.3 million associates, the company's owners are actively working to reduce their tax bill as well.

That's the word from the New York Times, which on Monday reported that Walmart will move up its quarterly dividend payment by six days. Why?

The Walton family, which founded Wal-Mart, could save as much as $180 million in federal income taxes after the huge retailer announced Monday that it would pay out its quarterly dividend on Dec. 27 instead of Jan. 2, as was scheduled.

The change will allow the family and other Wal-Mart shareholders to record the income this year, when the federal tax rate on dividends tops out at 15 percent. Next year, if the Obama administration and Republicans are unable to reach a compromise, that rate is set to jump sharply to 39.6 percent. High earners will have to pay an additional 3.8 percent on most investment income to help pay for the new federal health care law, bringing the total possible tax bite to 43.4 percent.

Now, Walmart is not the only company taking steps to avoid the higher capital gains and dividend tax rates advocated by President Obama. But in Walmart's case, the Times pointed out, "the Waltons own 48 percent of Wal-Mart's stock, or 1.6 billion shares, and control three of the company's 16 board seats." As it turns out, the heirs of Walmart founders Sam and James "Bud" Walton now possess combined wealth equivalent to 49 million American families, 42 percent of the total.

As labor economist Sylvia Allegretto of the University of California and Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute documented this week, the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) showed that the crippling recession which began five years ago has been a bonanza for the Walton Six. Between 2007 and 2010, the wealth of the Walton family members jumped from $73.3 billion to $89.5 billion even as median family wealth fell by 38.8 percent. The result?

In 2007, it was reported that the Walton family wealth was as large as the bottom 35 million families in the wealth distribution combined, or 30.5 percent of all American families.

And in 2010, as the Walton's wealth has risen and most other Americans' wealth declined, it is now the case that the Walton family wealth is as large as the bottom 48.8 million families in the wealth distribution (constituting 41.5 percent of all American families) combined.

It's no wonder Walmart chief financial officer Tom Schoewe told Wall Street analysts in the fall of 2007, "Tough times are actually a good time for Walmart."

Good for Walmart, that is, but not good enough for the Walton family.

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