The Government Strikes Back -- New IRS Notice Strengthens Anti-Inversion Rules

Inversion or expatriation transactions are often prompted by financial institutions, such as private equity owners and hedge funds that own or control companies in which they have invested and that desire to reduce U.S. corporate taxes they must pay. This article explains the basic steps and perceived tax benefits to U.S. corporations engaging in inversion transactions, and describes both the current statutory limitations contained in the Internal Revenue Code to prevent such inversions and a recently announced Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plan to make inversions more difficult to achieve. Finally, the article discusses the appropriateness of the new IRS plans and suggests other ways to make such inversions less attractive