Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., has built a network of 78 subsidiaries and branches in 15 offshore tax havens to minimize taxes on its operations outside the United States, a report by tax reform advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness said.
Walmart owns at least $76 billion in assets through shell companies domiciled in Luxembourg and the Netherlands, .
The world's largest retailer does not list these subsidiaries in its annual filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Subsidiaries in tax havens own at least 25 of Wal-Mart's 27 foreign operations, in countries such as the United Kingdom, China and Japan, the report said.
Wal-Mart has 22 shell companies in Luxembourg, where it does not have a single store, and paid less than 1 percent in tax in the country on $1.3 billion in profits from 2010 to 2013, the report said. Wal-Mart was not immediately available for comment.