Harpaz Waves Caution Flag on New Treasury Inversion Rules
Last week, the U.S Treasury Department issued changes to curb corporate inversions. Soon after, Pfizer and Allergan called-off plans for their $160 billion merger. The merger would have shifted the Pfizer headquarters to Ireland, where the firm also would be subject to a lower tax rate.
While this was seen as a quick win in President Obama’s effort to stem a growing number of corporate mergers between U.S. and foreign firms, others voice caution. Among them is Joe Harpaz, managing director with Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting business, who recently penned the column, “Beware Collateral Damage of New Tax Inversion Rules,” in Forbes.
As Harpaz notes, “While this type of rulemaking may look like an inside-baseball technicality, it could actually have a huge impact on many multinational corporations, not just those that have entered into inversion deals.”
You can read his column in full here.