FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 21, 2014
FACT Coalition Welcomes AbbVie Decision to Remain in U.S.
Public Outrage & Treasury Rules Working
Washington, DC – The FACT (Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency) Coalition is today commending AbbVie Inc. on its announcement that the pharmaceutical maker has decided not to purchase the Ireland-based company, Shire Plc., and its decision to remain in the United States.
The FACT Coalition sees this decision as a sign that public outrage over inversions and the recent actions by the U.S. Treasury Department are having an impact. In fact, AbbVie’s CEO specifically referenced Treasury’s actionsas one of the reasons it called off the deal.
The AbbVie-Shire deal would have been the biggest inversion to date. By artificially “moving its headquarters” to Ireland — simply on paper — this inversion would have given the company overwhelming ability to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes on U.S. profits by making it look like its profit was generated elsewhere. AbbVie is the second Illinois-based company (the other being Walgreens) to call off its intention to invert and try to flee the country for tax reasons. While Walgreen’s was considering its decision, public opposition to the move reached a fever pitch and boycotts of the drug store chain stymied its plans to invert.
“Corporations are finally waking up to the fact that inversions are bad for business and bad for America,” said Nick Jacobs, Communications Director for FACT. “Clearly, the new rules designed to stem the tide of inversions announced by Treasury are helping, but Congress still needs to act.”
“When Congress comes back after the elections, it will have an opportunity to take strong, decisive action to curb inversions.” said Jaimie Woo, Tax and Budget Associate for U.S. PIRG. “With bipartisan opposition to inversions, Congress should not hesitate to act in the public interest and close the loopholes that allow corporations to avoid paying their taxes through inversion.”
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Media Contact:
Nick Jacobs
FACT Coalition
202-841-1466
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Founded in 2011, the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition unites civil society representatives from small business, labor, government watchdog, faith-based, human rights, anti-corruption, public-interest, and international development organizations. We seek an honest and fair corporate tax code, greater transparency in corporate ownership and operations, and commonsense policies to combat the facilitation of money laundering and other criminal activity by the legitimate financial system.