U.S. government: will prevent enterprises from "emigrating" to reduce taxes

Source: ft Chinanet 2014-08-07 the market value of European medical enterprises evaporated billions of dollars yesterday, after the Obama administration threatened to take measures to curb the transatlantic M & a wave of us enterprises aimed at reducing US taxes The sharp fall in the share prices of several UK, Swiss and Irish companies reflects investor concerns that the forces driving the surge in cross-border transactions in the healthcare industry this year could be brought to an abrupt end by US political intervention The stock price of Walgreens, the US drugstore chain, was also affected after it confirmed it would give up the opportunity to move its tax registration to Switzerland, a sign once again that the so-called "tax inversion" era may be coming to an end Walgreens announced a closely tracked £ 9bn deal to buy a full stake in Swiss based alliance boots, but not move its tax registry to Switzerland, which could have reduced the company's multibillion dollar tax bill Walgreen's decision comes after the US Treasury warned that it was "assessing the authority of various possible administrative initiatives" to prevent companies from using cross-border transactions to evade us taxes The US congressman, who took the lead in attacking the tax reversal deal, welcomed Walgreens' decision to stay in the US But congressional staff said Walgreens' turnaround did not mark a victory in the overall fight against tax reversals, and vowed to continue to work on legislation to curb them For weeks, the political heat against tax reversals has been rising, with President Barack Obama last month criticizing "corporate deserters" who said they had moved their headquarters overseas and "given up their US citizenship".