Monsanto announced that it has resumed possible merger talks with Syngenta, a Swiss-based agricultural chemical giant. The pair explored a merger in early 2014 before deciding against it. When the 2014 talks were going on, one of the principle attractions for the deal was the possibility of Monsanto buying Syngenta… – Continue reading
The game of cat and mouse between tax authorities and citizens has been played for a very long time. People have been dodging taxes for centuries. But the more nuanced and sophisticated game of avoiding tax is a more recent phenomenon. Indeed, when it comes to tax avoidance the game… – 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
An OECD initiative on tax evasion is causing ripples around the world While a host of topics — from the necessity and the proposed scope of corporate tax reform, to corporate rate reduction and corporate inversions — are of major concern to those engaged in international tax, the overriding issue… – Continue reading
April 24 — Pressure is increasing on the Treasury Department to address concerns over language in the anti-inversions Notice 2014-52 that experts say could hurt the ability of foreign insurers to take part in commonplace business combination deals. “This has had an impact not only on foreign insurance companies, but… – Continue reading
TOKYO — Two of the world’s largest manufacturers of the machinery used to produce semiconductors, Applied Materials of the United States and Tokyo Electron of Japan, on Monday dropped plans to merge after the Department of Justice said that combining their businesses would restrict competition. The proposed $10 billion deal… – 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
When Burger King’s owners first announced last summer’s mega-deal to gobble up Tim Hortons, the fast-food firm’s executives downplayed a key reason why they were acquiring the Canadian coffee chain and relocating corporate HQ to Canada: to cut its taxes. “Tax wasn’t really the driver of this,” Daniel Schwartz, the… – Continue reading
NUMBER OF THE WEEK: 6.5 percent The tax rate at which companies could voluntarily repatriate their foreign earnings under the Invest in Transportation Act of 2015 ( S. 981). Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced the bipartisan proposal, offering ways to save the Highway Trust Fund. Funding… – Continue reading
Arris stock on Thursday rose over 22 percent—leading the Nasdaq Composite index. The gain was due to an announcement that the company would acquire Pace, a U.K.-based telecommunications company. The deal will allow Arris to change its domicile to the United Kingdom, where it will enjoy a 21 percent tax… – Continue reading
Arris Group Inc. agreed to buy British set-top box maker Pace Plc for about $2.1 billion and incorporate in the U.K. in a deal designed to save on taxes. Shares in Pace, one of Britain’s few global technology companies, rose as much as 44 percent. The acquisition will combine two… – Continue reading
Mylan NV Executive Chairman Robert Coury made $22.7 million, including $1 million for his personal use of the drugmaker’s two corporate jets, in 2012 and 2013. At Israeli rival Teva, shareholders in 2012 balked at raising the chairman’s salary to $900,000 a year. The contrast highlights the sharp differences that… – Continue reading
“The business tax system today is inefficient, overly complex, and too riddled with loopholes,” said Mark Mazur, assistant secretary for tax policy at the U.S. Department of Treasury. So much so, in fact, that it can’t fulfill its function to be a world-class system, he noted. Mazur, speaking Tuesday at… – Continue reading
Technology companies with international operations are increasingly using global tax avoidance methods, despite growing opposition from the public and politicians in the U.S. and abroad. As this opposition fuels ongoing changes in tax rules, organizations must be able to quickly adapt their corporate structures and tax strategies to maintain a… – Continue reading
Members of both houses of Congress in Washington D.C. are working to end offshore tax deals corporations are using to cut costs. “These companies, these corporations, want to avoid paying their fair share of taxes in the United States, sometimes billions of dollars and yet they want life to go… – Continue reading
For the majority of the public, including small business owners, Tax Day might not be our favorite time of year. However, it remains an important day because it means paying our dues for the numerous public benefits we receive, from our infrastructure and roads to our education system to our… – Continue reading
When Hillary Clinton recently borrowed Elizabeth Warren’s talking points and claimed “the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top” (in our economic and political system) against regular working people, did she mention reforming the tax code — and then offer any solutions? The simple answer is… – Continue reading
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. may need to accommodate activist shareholders with a merger or buyout. Starwood, which owns high-end hotel chains such as W and Westin, has one of the worst stock-return and growth outlooks in the industry. It’s also entering the second month of searching for a… – Continue reading
Top Democrats in both the House and the Senate are bringing back legislation to crack down on offshore tax deals. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) and five other Democratic lawmakers are proposing to ban companies that shift their legal address abroad and score a lower… – Continue reading
NEW YORK • When it comes to taxes, corporate America is getting a bit less corporate. And a bit less American. Fueled by a wave of inversions, a record 54 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of leading U.S. firms are now at least partially exempt from the… – Continue reading
April 14 — When it comes to taxes, corporate America is getting a bit less corporate. And a bit less American. Fueled by a wave of inversions, a record 54 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of leading U.S. companies are now at least partially exempt from the… – Continue reading
Increased mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceuticals space has been a boon for healthcare-heavy Israel exchange traded funds. Year-to-date, the Market Vectors Israel ETF (NYSEArca: ISRA) and the iShares MSCI Israel Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EIS) are up an average of 11.6%, an advantage of 260 basis points over the MSCI… – Continue reading
Increased mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceuticals space has been a boon for healthcare-heavy Israel exchange traded funds. Year-to-date, the Market Vectors Israel ETF (NYSEArca: ISRA) and the iShares MSCI Israel Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EIS) are up an average of 11.6%, an advantage of 260 basis points over the MSCI… – Continue reading
Everyone’s “favorite” day of the year is less than 24 hours away – Tax Day. And the big question is: Have you filed your return yet? (If you haven’t, stop reading this and go take care of that. This will still be here when you’re done.) By now, most people… – 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
Analysts upbeat on the company’s standalone prospects The recent share price performance of Shire Plc (LON:SHP), the London-listed drugmaker left at the altar by US pharma giant AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last year, suggests that the company will continue to thrive on its own, a view supported by recent analyst comments on… – Continue reading
When it comes to taxes, corporate America is getting a bit less corporate. And a bit less American. Fueled by a wave of inversions, a record 54 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of leading U.S. firms are now at least partially exempt from the corporate income tax…. – 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
After much of a clout about who will acquire Salix Pharmaceuticals (SLXP), Canadian Drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Ltd (VRX) completed the purchase for $11 billion last Wednesday. Salix Pharmaceuticals works in gastro instrumental drugs and it will provide Valeant with new therapeutic business. This is Valeant’s biggest buy so… – Continue reading
Law360, New York (April 06, 2015, 3:00 PM ET) — AbbVie Inc. asked an Illinois federal judge on Friday to dismiss a Shire PLC shareholders’ lawsuit claiming that it misrepresented the importance of tax incentives for the companies’ $55 billion merger that fell apart last year after the Obama administration… – Continue reading
Rather than installing a territorial tax system, the federal government should change U.S. securities rules, a law professor contends. Changing to a “territorial” tax system in the United States won’t ultimately stem the exodus of U.S.-based multinationals to lower-tax countries and could come at a significant cost in terms of… – Continue reading
Ranking Irish officials expressed concern the “double-Irish” corporate tax mechanism was undermining the State’s “international tax credibility” before the Government moved to scrap the loophole in this year’s budget. Newly released records of the influential Tax Strategy Group show officials also took note US president Barack Obama had criticised other… – Continue reading
NEW YORK — Faced with the prospect of letting another deal slip through its fingers, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International substantially increased its bid for Salix Pharmaceuticals on Monday, putting a quick end to a bidding war with Endo International. Valeant said it would now pay about $11bn, or $173 a share,… – 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
When the Obama administration changed the rules to make it harder for US companies to move their headquarters—and their taxable profits—overseas through the reverse mergers called tax inversions, it put the kibosh on at least one such deal. But now critics of the move say rules have made it easier… – Continue reading
The U.S. government’s efforts to collect taxes on American corporations’ overseas earnings that have been shielded by so-called tax inversions may have backfired, triggering a wave of foreign takeovers of American firms, according to a report published Sunday in the Financial Times. To reduce taxes on foreign earnings, corporations based… – 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
Just months after the Obama administration cracked down on mergers that helped US companies skirt domestic taxes, a wave of foreign takeovers is steering more tax revenue away from the US, reports the Wall Street Journal. In deals known as “tax inversions,” which spiked in 2014, US companies acquired foreign… – Continue reading
The year 2015 promises to be an active one in U.S. international tax policy, as new players take the stage in the tax reform debate, the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) effort continues to develop and even begins to go into effect around the world, and corporate inversions remain… – Continue reading
NUMBER OF THE WEEK: $42,268. The projected average taxable income of all tax returns in 2015, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation’s Feb. 27 report on “Fairness and Tax Policy.” The report also projects that the top ten percent (in terms of income) of all taxpayers in 2015 will… – Continue reading
You’re probably figuring out how much you owe the tax man for 2014 about now. The answer for a handful of big profitable companies is zilch. There are 11 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500, including tire maker Goodyear Tire & Rubber (GT), electronic component maker Eaton (ETN) and… – Continue reading
The Treasury Department’s crackdown on tax inversions last year has slowed but not stopped the movement of U.S. headquarters abroad as American businesses try to reduce tax bills and foreign firms seek to grow. Indeed, with U.S. companies now virtually barred from relocating overseas in order to trim taxes, the… – 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
A majority of CFOs at multinational corporations believe that publicity about their tax-planning strategies is having a negative impact on the reputation of their companies, according to a new poll. The survey, by the tax advisory firm Taxand, found that 77 percent of the CFOs polled said that exposure to… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – When a series of big U.S. companies last year moved to reincorporate abroad in inversion deals, some Republican lawmakers and tax policy critics blamed the high U.S. corporate tax rate. Lowering it, they said, would keep companies from fleeing the country. But a Reuters analysis of the taxes… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama will propose that U.S.-based companies pay a minimum 19 percent tax on their future foreign earnings, capturing profits that are now often beyond the government’s reach. Obama will also seek a 14 percent mandatory tax on about $2 trillion in stockpiled offshore profits, said two… – Continue reading
A Sunday Mirror investigation has found Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google, Ebay and Starbucks has paid less than one per cent tax Six of the world’s biggest companies paid just 0.3 per cent of their UK earnings in corporation tax last year, a Sunday Mirror probe has found. We have examined… – Continue reading
Capital Gains tax and inheritance tax should be merged to prevent wealthy homeowners being taxed twice, IoD suggests Capital gains tax and inheritance tax should be merged to prevent wealthy homeowners being taxed twice, according to the Institute of Directors. Taxes raising less than £5billion a year should be merged… – Continue reading
U.S.-based multinational corporations are using complex merger deals to avoid paying taxes on $12 billion a year in taxable foreign earnings that they repatriate back to the U.S., according to a new study. U.S. multinationals are required to pay U.S. corporate income taxes upon repatriation of foreign earnings earned in… – Continue reading
