Volume 2 No 10   |   Read Article

By Stanley C. Ruchelman and Kenneth Lobo

The latest step in inversion controversy involving U.S. publicly traded corporations is the upcoming merger between pharmaceutical giants, Pfizer and Allergan, in a stock transaction estimated to be worth $160 billion. Kenneth Lobo and Stanley C. Ruchelman look at recent I.R.S. countermeasures attacking cross-border mergers that the I.R.S. views as inversions. Among other measures, rules are announced to limit planning alternatives using check-the-box entities to stuff assets into an acquirer without exposing those assets to tax in the jurisdiction of residence of the acquirer and use of parent-company stock as the consideration for the acquisition.  See more →