More than a decade ago, when corporate inversions first came under scrutiny, a group of leading New York tax lawyers took a principled stand and called for urgent action to stop these deals.
In 2002, the New York State Bar’s Tax Section issued a 71-page report presenting a policy argument for why these deals—in which U.S. companies avoid paying a high domestic corporate tax by reincorporating in another country where the tax rate is lower—were bad for this nation and its tax system. Even though the deals were legal, they should be eliminated because they undermined the integrity of the tax system, the report maintained.
