by Richard Rubin
Wall St Journal Blogs
The U.S. Treasury Department issued new rules late Monday against corporate inversions, transactions in which U.S. companies take a foreign address, often through a merger with a smaller firm.
What’s the government trying to do?
The Treasury Department wants to make it harder for companies to make the arithmetic on inversions add up for companies. The government also wants to reduce the postinversion maneuvers companies can use to lower their U.S. taxes. And Treasury officials are trying to do that within their own authority, given the congressional stalemate on the issue.