Pfizer's proposed merger with Allergan, which will take the pharmaceutical giant's tax domicile overseas, has provoked a new round of angst about corporate defections.
The $160 billion merger is the biggest ever example of an inversion: a company establishing its "headquarters" overseas and paying a lower rate of corporate tax to a foreign nation, while keeping all of its operations, employees and earnings in the U.S.
Third District Representative Rosa DeLauro has spoken out on this issue before, and now Pfizer's move has renewed her call for congressional action.
"Pfizer built their business on the back of our research and development tax incentives, our federally supported medical research, our skilled workforce, and our infrastructure," DeLauro said in a statement. "Now Pfizer is renouncing their citizenship to dodge their tax bill."
DeLauro wants the House of Representatives to take up a piece of legislation she's authored, called rather straightforwardly the No Federal Contracts for Corporate Deserters Act.
The bill would prevent companies that reincorporate overseas from picking up taxpayer-funded federal contracts.
Back in September, DeLauro wrote to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, asking him to authorize his department to publish a list of inverted companies, and to use his executive power to crack down on inversions.
