A rout in pharmaceutical and biotech stocks has altered the equation for chief executives thinking about big-ticket mergers and acquisitions. On one hand, target companies are much cheaper than they were: roughly $130 billion has been wiped off the Nasdaq biotech index since Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, pledged… – Continue reading
‘Special purpose’ approach by accountants hides corporate secrets Amid the maelstrom over the GST, the Senate last night passed what may be the most useful piece of legislation yet to combat multinational tax avoidance. The new law was not carried by the government, whose track record on tackling big tax… – Continue reading
Tax-driven “inversion” deals that let companies flee the U.S. tax system by relocating abroad, if only on paper, would be curbed under legislation introduced in Congress, as Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) pursues such a deal with rival Allergan Plc (AGN.N). Wisconsin Democratic Representative Mark Pocan’s bills likely have little chance of… – Continue reading
In a time of fiscal austerity, it is breathtaking to learn that Congress has allowed Fortune 500 companies to avoid an estimated $620 billion in federal taxes on earnings they are holding offshore. While the inaction by lawmakers on this issue may create the impression that there is nothing to… – Continue reading
FRANKFURT (The Street) — Europe’s allure as a tax haven for U.S. multinationals may be coming to an end. That’s because European Union regulators are closing up tax loopholes that U.S. companies have been enjoying for years. The first two to feel the heat are Starbucks (SBUX – Get Report)… – Continue reading
The recent corporation tax controversy highlighted by US presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is not damaging Ireland’s reputation as a place to do business, said the former chief executive of Apple, John Sculley. According to Mr Sculley, the controversy is simply part of US election fever. Known as… – Continue reading
One year after the announced closing off of the Double Irish tax arrangement, U.S. multinationals once again turned their attention to Dublin as Ireland announced details of the Knowledge Development Box, or KDB. This new component to its corporate tax regime will allow companies to pay a reduced corporate tax… – Continue reading
Pharmaceutical giant Shire, which is headquartered in Ireland for tax purposes, has agreed to buy US rare disease specialist Dyax Corp for about $5.9bn (€5.35bn), and potentially up to $6.5bn, while still pursuing a five- times larger unsolicited bid for biopharma firm Baxalta Inc. The Dyax deal, the latest in… – Continue reading
The Republican front-runner says high corporate tax rates are the real villain. Donald Trump isn’t blaming Pfizer Inc. for the problem of corporate inversions. The Republican front-runner said Pfizer’s planned merger with Allergan Plc was understandable since it would allow the company to relocate its headquarters to Ireland, where taxes… – Continue reading
Pfizer’s bid for $113bn Dublin-based drug maker Allergan is the biggest merger of the year, anywhere. It’s potentially good news for the Irish exchequer, which may gain a massive new taxpayer, and for businesses here like Arthur Cox, Allergan’s adviser on Irish corporate law. But a deal that may well… – Continue reading
A spate of so-called “tax inversion” deals involving companies based in Ireland appears to be distorting the country’s foreign direct investment (FDI) numbers, The Irish Times reports. An OECD report suggests investment by Irish firms abroad more than doubled to US$75 billion in the first half of 2015. The study… – Continue reading
Pfizer Inc. may be getting closer to breaking up and moving out. The largest U.S. drugmaker and Allergan Plc are considering combining operations, according to the Wall Street Journal. A deal would give Pfizer a way to move to a low-tax legal address abroad and gain valuable specialty drugs like… – Continue reading
Coca-Cola might owe an additional $3.3 billion in federal income taxes following an audit, says the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Following a five year audit of the company, the IRS concluded that the company’s strategy of lowering its taxable income through transfer pricing, underestimates the amount the company should’ve been… – Continue reading
Ireland, whose corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent is already one of the lowest in the developed world, said it would cut that rate in half for a new tax category — one covering revenue pegged to companies’ patents and other intellectual property. The Irish government, long criticized by other… – Continue reading
There’s enough cash sitting in offshore bank accounts to wipe out the federal deficit — if only it was subject to U.S. taxes. That’s because U.S. companies are saving some $620 billion by parking profits outside the country, according to the latest accounting from Citizens for Tax Justice and U.S…. – Continue reading
Nearly three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies booked their profits to tax havens last year, with just 30 companies accounting for 62 percent of earnings stashed offshore, according to a new report. The report, “Offshore Shell Games,” released Tuesday by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund and Citizens for Tax Justice, found… – Continue reading
The 500 largest American companies hold more than $2.1 trillion in accumulated profits offshore to avoid U.S. taxes and would collectively owe an estimated $620 billion in U.S. taxes if they repatriated the funds, according to a study released on Tuesday. The study, by two left-leaning non-profit groups, found that… – Continue reading
Moving overseas to cut tax burden remains a viable option for some firms, though the presidential candidates may have other plans. With the long haul of a presidential election campaign just beginning, companies that leave the U.S. to lower their tax bills are once again political targets. Donald Trump this… – Continue reading
As Labor Day weekend approaches, a tanned and rested Congress is poised to return to Washington to hash out corporate tax changes. Much of the debate over corporate tax reform in Washington sensibly focuses on how to encourage Fortune 500 corporations to repatriate and pay U.S. taxes on the $2.1… – Continue reading
What is the difference between 30 per cent of zero and 20 per cent of zero? Correct: precisely $5227.27 less than a Bronwyn-Bishop-taxpayer-funded helicopter trip from Melbourne to Geelong. A reduction in the corporate tax rate, as unrelentingly espoused by the business lobby in its pro-GST campaign, may be a… – Continue reading
Why stop at $221 billion? Drug companies are entering another round of dealmaking, after plowing past the global record. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.’s $40.5 billion agreement Monday to purchase Allergan Plc’s generic-medicines business puts the mechanism in place to trigger more takeovers. For starters, the remaining Allergan company — with… – Continue reading
None of the pharmaceutical companies that are accused of profit shifting have been taken to court, the Australian Taxation Office has said in written responses to the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance. Earlier in July executives from the largest global pharmaceutical companies operating in Australia were hauled before the… – Continue reading
Ireland’s Horizon Pharma has launched a hostile takeover bid for Depomed of the US after being frustrated in its efforts to enter negotiations about combining the two companies. Horizon was a US company until September 2014 when it closed a $660m takeover of Irish company Vidara Therapeutics just days before… – Continue reading
Florida governor releases 33 years of tax returns. Jeb Bush made $29 million in the first seven years after he left public office, dramatically increasing his wealth during a recession, a financial crisis and the Obama presidency he has criticized. Bush’s tax returns, released Tuesday, show how the former Florida… – Continue reading
Multinational pharmaceutical companies are unable to assure Australians they are not being “ripped off” on the price of medicines as a result of their complex global supply chains. The Australian heads of nine of the biggest global drug suppliers were forced into the embarrassing admission on Tuesday after backing themselves… – Continue reading
THE focus of a high-level inquiry into corporate tax avoidance will move to some of the globe’s biggest drug companies during hearings today. After revealing details of the tax minimisation strategies at Google, Apple and Microsoft, the Senate’s Standing Committee on Economics will hear from pharmaceutical executives in Sydney. Among… – Continue reading
Multinational drug companies are presenting a united front ahead of their appearance at the Senate’s corporate tax avoidance inquiry, insisting they are honest, ethical and pay their fair share of tax. Nine pharmaceutical companies, which between them receive billions of dollars in taxpayer-subsidised sales via the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, will… – Continue reading
Last year at this time, more than a dozen U.S.-based corporations were threatening to move their legal residence to foreign tax havens in a paper transaction known as an inversion. Facing a wave of public opposition, some corporations abandoned these inversion attempts—notably, drugstore chain Walgreens put its plans on ice,… – Continue reading
US companies have regained their appetite for controversial foreign takeovers that allow them to move overseas and escape US taxes, in spite of a White House crackdown to restrict so-called tax inversions last year, reports the Financial Times. According to several senior corporate advisers in the US and Europe, demand… – Continue reading
The last time the US tried repatriation – in 2004 – companies took the tax breaks and fired American workers. Better to close loopholes and invest in infrastructure If you had a spoiled 10-year-old at home who you found rifling through your wallet, what would you do? Would you spank… – Continue reading
The five biggest suppliers of publicly subsidised medicines in Australia recorded sales of nearly $5 billion last year but paid an average of just $10 million each in company tax. Research by the Parliamentary Library, obtained by Fairfax Media, has disclosed the tax contribution of multinational pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer… – Continue reading
The big miners were sprung for their Singapore profits sling, and the United States tech giants shown up for their Byzantine tax structures, but there was little time left to spend on other sectors where multinational tax chicanery was rife. When the Senate Inquiry into Corporate Tax Avoidance reconvened to… – Continue reading
If Illinois small business owners were to collectively offset state and federal revenues lost annually due to corporations using offshore tax havens, they would each have to pay $4,570 in additional taxes a year. That what-if scenario is laid out in a recent report from the Illinois Public Interest Research… – Continue reading
Last September, the US Treasury Department announced new tax rules designed to crack down on the rising trend of “tax-inversion” deals in the pharmaceutical industry, as an increasing number of US firms had begun to pursue overseas acquisitions in attempts to relocate their legal addresses to non-US based headquarters to… – Continue reading
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) went big exactly a year ago when it announced a takeover offer for UK-based AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN). The company’s decision to lap up AstraZeneca was seen as opportunistic; it being laced with controversy on many accounts, with some allegations behind the company’s proposition to acquire AstraZeneca… – Continue reading
Companies with Colorado locations that shelter some of their profits in an offshore tax haven will be made to pay more tax to the state — as much as $150 million a year, some estimates say — under a bill that is scheduled for its first hearing Wednesday in the… – Continue reading
Washington, D.C. – As tax day approaches, it’s important to remember that small businesses end up picking up the tab for offshore tax loopholes used by many large multinational corporations. U.S. PIRG joined Senator Bernie Sanders, Bryan McGannon of the American Sustainable Business Council, and Bob McIntyre of Citizens for… – Continue reading
Every year, corporations and wealthy individuals use complicated gimmicks to shift U.S. earnings to subsidiaries in offshore tax havens – countries with minimal or no taxes – in order to reduce their federal and state income tax liabilities by billions of dollars. While tax haven abusers benefit from America’s markets,… – Continue reading
Mylan-Perrigo deal would combine two generic drugmakers that recently left the U.S. for Europe. NEW YORK — In a deal that would combine two generic drugmakers that recently left the U.S. for Europe, Mylan says it wants to buy Perrigo for $205 per share, or $28.86 billion. Shares of both… – Continue reading
Remember that $2.1 trillion of corporate tax profits parked overseas? Well, it’s still there (and growing every day) and politicians are still trying to find a way to lure or compel companies to bring it home. On Monday, President Obama sent a $478 billion transportation bill to Congress funded largely… – Continue reading
Like a savvy bargainer on a used car lot, big multinational corporations have mastered the art of feigning indifference and walking away. What they walk away with is their profits, stockpiling them abroad where they legally remain untaxed until returned to the United States. Then these corporations threaten to keep… – Continue reading
Irish eyes are smiling in corporate America. The Emerald Isle has emerged as the world’s top recipient of U.S. foreign direct investment, according to a report from the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland. In the first nine months of 2014, Ireland beat the likes of Canada, Mexico, the U.K. and… – Continue reading
Amid mounting pressure last year, the US launched a supposed crackdown on tax inversion. But it might not have been as far-reaching as was made out, and with good reason The recent G20 crackdown on tax avoidance by funnelling profits through tax havens has sparked a variety of reactions –… – Continue reading
Profits outside US exceed non-US sales for company selling $1,000 a pill HepC therapy Gilead Science, whose $1,000-a-pill hepatitis C treatment is one of the world’s most expensive drugs, is avoiding billions of dollars in US taxes by booking profits overseas. The company, which has operations in Ireland, reported foreign… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) — The backlash against acquisitions meant to skirt U.S. tax laws could spur more midsize U.S. drugmakers to sell to overseas buyers, Bill Ackman, the billionaire activist hedge fund manager, said Thursday. Takeover activity in 2014 was highlighted by U.S. companies — including Medtronic Inc. and Pfizer Inc. —… – Continue reading
Report skewers PwC for creation of Shire tax shelter it calls ‘tax avoidance on an industrial scale’ Shire’s Ireland address has made the specialty drugmaker a prime takeover target. AbbVie was attracted but dumped the $55 billion buyout when the U.S. Treasury Department threw cold water on the deal with… – Continue reading
Puerto Rico’s Acts 20 & 22, tax incentive laws aimed at luring wealthy American investors to move there and at reviving the Island’s economy, are celebrating their third anniversary this month. While Puerto Rico’s economic situation remains bleak (it currently has more than $73 billion of “junk” status debt, unemployment… – Continue reading
Congressional Democrats are preparing new efforts to curb the offshore tax deals that drew the ire of President Obama last year. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) and Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) will introduce legislation on Tuesday seeking to stop the maneuver… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) -– So how did the previously obscure term tax inversions become part of Washington parlance, fodder for the next presidential campaign and the issue that helped derail a U.S. Treasury nominee? Thank, or blame, depending on your perspective, cutting-edge tax lawyers, populist Democrats, a banana seller, a drugmaker, a… – Continue reading
In August, President Barack Obama pledged to use the powers of his office to discourage the corporate tax-avoidance technique known as inversion, in which U.S. companies claim foreign tax addresses. Four months earlier, according to a previously unreported legal document, his Department of Homeland Security did just the opposite. It… – Continue reading
