WalMart received an estimated $7.8 billion dollars in tax breaks and subsidies in 2013

On April 15, taxpayers in Phoenix, Arizona delivered a special tax bill to Walmart Chairman, Rob Walton. According to the group Americans for Tax Fairness, the retail giant received an estimated $7.8 billion dollars in tax breaks and subsidies in 2013. Those benefits include lower tax rates on dividends issued to the Walton family and Walmart executives, loopholes and special tax breaks from the government, and social services that employees use to subsidize Walmart's poverty wages. To put that number in perspective, $7.8 billion dollars is enough money to hire more than 100,000 new public school teachers. And, that massive number doesn't even include additional benefits Walmart receives from low tariffs on Chinese products, or the revenue they take in from being the largest recipient of food stamp dollars. Anthony Goytia, one of the Walmart workers who helped deliver the massive tax bill, said, "When the richest family in America isn't paying their fair share, it's no wonder that our children's schools, our roads, and basic public programs are getting cut left and right." And he's exactly right. Our government may let the retail giant get away with avoiding taxes, but our fellow citizens are exposing Walmart's reliance on corporate welfare.