Targeting Corporate Inversions – Are We Doing the Right Thing?

For decades now, corporate inversions have been the topic of an ongoing debate between legislators, practitioners, and academics. Since the first inversion in 1982, while often arguing on the right methods, policy, and ways, Congress, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”), and countless legislators and political affiliates have advocated against this type of transaction. However, almost thirty-five years later, there seems to have been little to no progress in hindering corporations from partaking in the infamous transaction; the number of inversions has grown nearly 150% since the first transaction. Every piece of legislation enacted concerning this behavior is met with a counter transaction that finds its way around the new law. As of 2015, over sixty companies have changed their places of incorporation to a jurisdiction outside of the United States. It remains to be seen if a way to stop transactions that give way to tax inversions truly exists, as the solution must not interfere with other economic and policy issues. Therefore, the question becomes whether or not attempting to inhibit such transactions should be pursued, and, if continued, what is the next step in regulating them?