NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Tax inversion deals have effectively been repriced by the US Treasury signaling an end to “hop-scotch” loans and other tax structuring opportunities, according to Fitch Ratings. AbbVie’s purchase of Shire and the planned merger of Salix Pharmaceuticals and Cosmo Technologies, both pulled since the Treasury announcement, were scuttled… – Continue reading
One of the stories that firms deserting our country like to tell is that by moving their corporate domicile (but not their actual headquarters) outside U.S. borders to duck taxes, they will be able to use cash they have parked offshore to expand their operations in the United States. So… – Continue reading
Countries that work together like Ireland and the US “need to be cognisant” of the impact their tax policies have on each other, new US Ambassador to Ireland Kevin O’Malley said in a speech yesterday. He said cross-border mergers can make the Irish and American economies stronger, but that “these… – Continue reading
The number of companies lobbying the U.S. government on tax inversions more than doubled in the quarter ended Sept. 30, as they sought to prevent Congress and the Obama administration from imposing new restrictions. Novartis AG (NOVN), SAP SE, and Eaton Corp Plc (ETN) were among companies that began lobbying… – Continue reading
Corporate tax “inversion” deals became a prime target this year of President Barack Obama, as part of his running theme that many U.S. corporations are stealing from Americans by not paying their fair share. After the August announcement of Burger King’s plans to merge with Canada-based Tim Hortons, the administration… – Continue reading
For now, while the benefit for American corporations to buy or merge and move overseas may be over, as evidenced by AbbVie cancelling its merger with Shire Pharmaceutical, that doesn’t mean that consolidation within the industry is through. A new research report from Merrill Lynch features three top companies, dubbed… – Continue reading
The U.S. government’s move to hamper tax-inversion deals is good for the drug industry because it forces companies to focus on intrinsic business reasons for transactions, Actelion Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Jean-Paul Clozel said. Since the U.S. Treasury said last month that it would tighten tax rules, three of eight… – Continue reading
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden has indicated that, as companies appear to be reconsidering inversions following the administrative measures put forward by the Treasury Department last month, he is focused on reforming the US tax code, rather than pressing for immediate anti-inversion legislation. “While it looks like the rush… – Continue reading
AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) and Shire Plc agreed to terminate what would have been the biggest U.S. tax inversion after AbbVie pulled its support for the deal in the wake of proposed changes to U.S. rules governing such transactions. AbbVie, based in North Chicago, Illinois, planned to buy Shire for an… – Continue reading
The tide of tax inversions has started to recede, taking with it a substitute for real growth at some of our biggest companies. AbbVie Inc. just decided to bail out of an acquisition that would have moved its headquarters overseas where corporate tax rates are lower than U.S. rates. AbbVie… – Continue reading
A number of American corporations are making news, and not in a good way. They have announced mergers with foreign companies so they can avoid paying U.S. taxes. They are seeking what is called a “tax inversion” and it allows an American corporation to merge with a foreign corporation, move… – Continue reading
Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Friday that he hopes to build on the pharmaceutical company AbbVie’s move away from a tax inversion. AbbVie’s board advised shareholders to vote against the proposed merger with the Irish competitor Shire, which Wyden said showed the company saw “the strategic business value… – Continue reading
Minnesota Democrat invested in opponent’s tax-inverting company as son’s private equity firm opens shop in Caymans Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.) is hoping to saddle his Republican challenger with Mitt Romney-esque charges of “vulture corporatism,” but his own investment activities, and those of his son, could blunt those attacks with… – Continue reading
The £32bn takeover of a leading UK pharmaceuticals firm is in danger of collapse because of a tax crackdown announced by the White House. AbbVie said this week that its board would meet on Monday to reconsider the purchase of Basingstoke-based Shire, which is best known for its drugs to… – Continue reading
The collapse of AbbVie’s takeover of Shire shows President Obama has put an end to the tax inversion bonanza for bankers and lawyers but they will find new ways to keep the deal wheels turning In 2010, a group of corporate lawyers went cycling in the French countryside. They whizzed… – Continue reading
AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) may scrap its planned 32.4-billion-pound ($51.5 billion) deal for Dublin-based drugmaker Shire Plc (SHP), in what would be the biggest casualty of the U.S. crackdown on so-called tax inversions. Shire stock plunged the most in 12 years after North Chicago, Illinois-based AbbVie said its board will meet… – Continue reading
Two Brazilian companies are raising their bid for banana company Chiquita to approximately $658 million. Investment firm Safra Group and juice company Cutrale Group said Wednesday that they are now offering $14 per Chiquita share, up from their previous bid of $13 per share. That’s an approximately 6 percent premium… – Continue reading
After announcing Ohio-based Steris Co.’s plans to become British for tax purposes on Monday, CEO Walter Rosenbrough later said on a conference call, “We’re not typically users of aggressive tax policies and I don’t think we are here.” That’s his story, and he’s sticking to it. But even a cursory… – Continue reading
Blue-ribbon corporations are deserting our country “to avoid paying taxes but expect to keep receiving the full array of benefits that being American confers, and that everyone else is paying for,” Fortune magazine reports. That’s right, Fortune wrote it; not Pravda. In a scathing article titled “Positively Un-American” by Allan… – Continue reading
The U.S. government’s attempt to prevent companies from seeking a tax address outside the country hasn’t stopped Steris Corp. (STE) The Mentor, Ohio-based provider of hospital sterilization products and services announced today that it will buy the smaller Synergy Health Plc (SYR) and establish the combined company’s tax address to… – Continue reading
The drugmaker AbbVie said Tuesday it is having second thoughts about its deal to combine with British counterpart Shire after the U.S. government created new limitations on the tax benefits of incorporating overseas. North Chicago, Illinois-based AbbVie said it notified Shire that its board intends to reconsider the recommendation it… – Continue reading
Medical device giant Medtronic is close to finishing a deal to move its tax headquarters to Ireland and boost its stock price. But while shareholders face taxes on those gains, the company is shelling out more than $60 million to make sure its CEO and 25 other top officials won’t… – Continue reading
Endo International Plc (ENDP) agreed to buy Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AUXL) for about $2.6 billion to gain testosterone products. Endo will pay $33.25 a share, and Auxilium holders will be able to choose cash, stock or a combination of the two, the companies said today in a statement. The price… – Continue reading
Medtronic announced last week that it will go ahead with its Covidien buyout despite a recent notification by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service discouraging tax-avoiding corporate inversion deals. Per the new guidelines, companies will not be able to avoid paying U.S. taxes when accessing… – Continue reading
The non-legislative measures put forward by the Treasury Department on September 22, to deter multinationals from using corporate inversions to move their tax residence abroad and move away from the high United States tax rate, have so far produced a mixed bag of results. The measures are aimed at preventing… – Continue reading
When the Obama administration clamped down last month on companies that reincorporate abroad to escape high U.S. taxes, it did not address a tax-dodging technique known as “earnings stripping,” leaving some to wonder if it is the next target. Earnings stripping is widely practiced and covers a range of financial dealings that… – Continue reading
An Assembly committee approved a Democrat-backed bill Thursday that would prevent the state or an independent authority from contracting a company that is structured to avoid paying taxes by having their corporate headquarters overseas. The Commerce and Economic Development Committee voted 7-3, splitting along party lines, to pass the bill… – Continue reading
The European Commission’s crackdown on the deal between Irish tax authorities and Apple Inc. marks an expansion in the growing global war on tax avoidance by multinational companies. Governments that enable it are now a target. Tuesday, the European Commission said the Irish tax authorities failed to conform to international… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) — AbbVie Inc. is examining plans to raise additional financing to complete its takeover of Shire Plc, after U.S. officials imposed new obstacles to so-called tax inversion deals, people with knowledge of the matter said. AbbVie may seek to borrow as much as $7 billion more than it originally… – Continue reading
Canada should not count on building its economy by luring U.S. multinationals over the border with low tax rates in light of an announcement from the U.S. Treasury Department this week. The department outlined new measures to block companies from escaping U.S. taxes by moving earnings outside the country. This… – Continue reading
A good way to build a stronger economy is to create a fairer and more efficient tax code — one that promotes business investment and job creation in the United States. That is why the President has proposed business tax reform that will simplify the tax code by lowering the… – Continue reading
Corporate financial accounting and taxation are complex subjects. For this reason, many people tune out when issues that involve corporate tax practices rise to the level of public debate. Unfortunately, many legislators shy away from these issues for similar reasons. But while corporate taxation can be mind-bogglingly complex, nontax experts… – Continue reading
Stricter tax inversion rules punish stocks of firms mulling such moves. The Obama administration’s tougher rules on offshore corporate inversions had an immediate effect Tuesday, pushing down the stock prices of companies considering such moves.But the highly technical changes to the tax code di Stricter tax inversion rules punish stocks… – Continue reading
After promising to flush out companies that stash their cash in offshore tax havens, the Harper government has lost its enthusiasm for ruffling corporate feathers. By: Carol Goar Star Columnist, Published on Tue Sep 23 2014 There has been scarcely a peep out of Ottawa since last winter’s promise to… – Continue reading
Nokia, Skype and Minecraft-maker Mojang have more in common than just the fact that they are among Microsoft’s biggest acquisition targets in recent years. They are all also based outside the U.S., and that’s no coincidence. As the debate over so-called inversions heats up and critics — from President Obama… – Continue reading
Former president Bill Clinton declined to call tax inversions “unpatriotic” on Tuesday, shying away from a term that President Obama has used repeatedly against companies that take advantage of the maneuver. Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative, Clinton was asked to weigh in on the offshore tax deals that Democrats… – Continue reading
The Obama administration’s new rules intended to stem the tide of inversions, in which U.S. companies reincorporate abroad to dodge taxes at home, won’t be completely effective because they don’t address the high corporate tax rate in the U.S. that compels such behavior, say tax experts and analysts. The rules announced… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, Sept 23, (Agencies): Tough new US rules on corporate “inversions” on Tuesday sent a chill through the market for the tax-avoidance deals, both pending and potential, with share prices falling sharply in nearly a dozen companies on both sides of the Atlantic. As investors sold stocks involved in inversions,… – Continue reading
Inversions are technically a financial transaction where a corporation from one country, say the United States, merges with a company in a foreign country, say Ireland. Nothing changes in the United States from a business point of view, except that the value and financial sustainability of the corporation goes up significantly. Why… – Continue reading
AstraZeneca shares are leading the losers on the FTSE 100 after the US Treasury department revealed that it forging new rules that will make it more difficult for companies to move their bases abroad to avoid tax. The AstraZeneca stock price has tumbled by over 5% to 4348.50p by midday while rival GlaxoSmithKline was hit by 1.25% at… – Continue reading
The Obama administration announced on Monday that it will use its regulatory authority to crack down on tax inversions, the maneuver used by Burger King and other companies to cut their tax bills by moving their tax home outside the United States. “We’ve recently seen a few large corporations announce… – Continue reading
The beautiful part is the administration did it without Congress. Jared Bernstein, a former chief economist to Vice President Biden, is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and author of “Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed?” among other books. Well, would you look at… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Moving against tax avoidance by corporations, the Obama administration took several actions on Monday to curb “inversion” deals that allow companies to escape high U.S. taxes by reincorporating abroad. The Treasury Department announced new rules, effective immediately, that will reduce the tax benefits available to companies that have… – Continue reading
Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D – Illinois) and Sherrod Brown (D – Ohio) have introduced a bill – the Pay What You Owe Before You Go Act of 2014 – into the Senate that would require multinational corporations to settle their United States tax bill before using corporate inversions to… – Continue reading
Plans to curb tax avoidance will hit Ireland. Most countries are set to force multinationals to pay more tax and as the political controversy grows, our own role in these activities will come under ever increasing scrutiny On Tuesday the OECD, the Paris-based club of the world’s richest economies, published… – Continue reading
While Senate Democrats continue to examine specific legislative proposals to deter US multinationals from using corporate inversions to move their tax residence abroad, Republicans remain insistent that any specific anti-inversion legislation should be explicitly linked to comprehensive tax reform. A new bill has been put forward by Charles Schumer (D… – Continue reading
Company after company are fleeing tax oppression in the United States by seeking mergers and acquisitions in lower corporate-tax rate nations. Ireland with a tax rate of 12.5 percent and the United Kingdom with 20 percent, in particular, are attractive alternatives to the United States with a world-leading corporate-tax rate… – Continue reading
Australians are increasingly concerned about corporate tax avoidance and support greater measures to tackle profit shifting, a survey shows. Voters are also more likely to view companies such as Apple negatively because of their use of offshore tax havens, and want companies to be required to report their profits and… – Continue reading
American taxpayers are being robbed by yet another giant corporation that is deserting the USA after using the country’s advantages to build untold wealth. Burger King’s recent decision to pursue a corporate inversion to Canada is the culmination of years of maneuvering to dodge paying its fair share in corporate… – Continue reading
A friend of a friend just cited (in an email) the U2 rock band for having “social consciousness.” As noted in this February 2007 posting, referencing a New York Times article on the subject, the U2 folks had never paid any income tax and decided to invert themselves into an… – Continue reading
