WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is cracking down on American companies that seek to reincorporate overseas to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
In a so-called “tax inversion,” a U.S. business merges with or is acquired by a foreign company in a country with a lower tax rate.
The Treasury Department says it’s putting forward regulations that will make inversions less lucrative by barring some techniques companies use to defer their taxes. It’s also making it harder for companies to pursue an inversion by tightening the requirement that the company’s former owners own less than 80 percent of the new company.
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew says the steps will ensure that it’s no longer financially beneficial for companies to use that tactic.
The new measures will take effect immediately.
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I hope those regs include requiring any executives who maintain US residency to register as foreign agents.
This is good news. I think that bankers who provide fraudulent and illegal tax schemes should be held accountable for any illegal tax evasion resulting from their actions and required to refund fees they may have charged.
Good news. Government doing what government is supposed to be doing.
I am horrified. These are corporate persons being vilified by the Administration.
It is bad enough that our country already treats them like a separate class of person, with segregated “corporate” tax laws and “corporate” tax returns. We even force them to file paperwork and pay a fee before we will admit that they exist.
As they flee for the relative freedom and acceptance to be found in Ireland, Bermuda, or the Cayman Islands, our Marxist President cannot resist tearing away one last pound of flesh from the battered Corporate corpus.