(Washington, D.C.) Walmart, America’s largest retailer, has been using high-risk tax loopholes to avoid liability for up to $2.9 billion in additional taxes to state, federal, and other governments, as disclosed in the company’s recent SEC filing. As Walmart made $14.4 billion in profits last year, the amount of money they could owe individual states in taxes reached into the millions. For example, in 2005 North Carolina assessed Walmart for approximately $33 million for underpayment of taxes owed the state. Audits by other states could reveal similar underpayments.

This Tax Day, as millions of Americans mail in their tax returns, thousands of activists across the country gathered to demand that state revenue officials perform tax audits of Walmart and force them to pay their fare share to state and local governments.

“During this recession, state and local budget shortfalls are hitting our communities and the public services we count on particularly hard,” said Rhonda Nelson, International Chair of the Women’s Network of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. “Walmart needs to pay their share for the safe streets, good schools, and clean water we all use and depend upon, not rely upon tax dodges to pad their profits, leaving us to make up the difference.”

Millions of Americans have been affected by state and local budget deficits and service cuts, and today they gathered to inform their fellow taxpayers of Walmart’s contribution to that shortfall in 30 cities nationwide. They, along with community activists and leaders, the UFCW Women’s Network and its activists across the country, and Wake Up Walmart gathered thousands of petition signatures calling on the taxation authority in each state to audit Walmart for tax dodges and possible underpayment of state taxes. These signatures, along with a confidential 2002 memo from Walmart’s tax advisors advising them how to duck tax payments and a letter urging an audit are being sent to the each state’s revenue authority.

Walmart’s tax avoidance has continued far too long, as they play a game with high-priced accountants and lawyers to stretch the law and take advantage of cash-strapped state and local governments. All the while, Walmart is accepting subsidies from those same governments for development and millions of dollars in public assistance for its underpaid employees. Walmart should pay their fair share, and “settle up” just like millions of taxpayers have done today.

More than half the members of the UFCW are women, and the UFCW Women’s Network works to alert the UFCW members and the public about child labor, foreign made products, workplace violence, policies and practices of anti-union companies that undercut our economy and our communities.