Times Columnist Lambasts “Inversion” Tax Dodge

Veteran New York Times business columnist Floyd Norris wrote a scathing critique of a strategy frequently employed by U.S. companies: merging with a company based in one of the offshore tax havens, like Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, and avoiding paying U.S. corporate taxes. How common is it? One office building on the Cayman Islands is reported to be the registered address for 18,857 companies. The Times article is based on a report by two left-leaning groups, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund and Citizens for Tax Justice. Norris concludes with a quote from the report: “The profits earned by these companies generally depend on access to America’s largest-in-the-world consumer market, a well-educated work force trained by our school systems, strong private property rights enforced by our court system, and American roads and rail to bring products to market. Multinational companies that depend on America’s economic and social infrastructure are shirking their obligation to pay for that infrastructure if they shelter the resulting profits overseas.”