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The Is A Popular Destination For Corporations

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In 2012, Eaton Corporation, a global power company, acquired Ireland based Cooper Industries, an electrical equipment supplier. Overall, this deal is expected to save Eaton $160 million in taxes by 2016. (Gilleard, 2012). With Corporate Inversions like this on the rise, it is projected that the United States Treasury could lose up to $19.5 billion dollars over the next 10 years. ( Sloan, Jeelani,Wahba,Casey & Jones, 2014). After the merger of Eaton and Cooper, Eaton’s 2013 effective tax rate was only .6%. This was down from 2.5% in 2012 and 12.9% in 2011. According to Eaton’s Securities and Exchange Commission’s filing, much of this decrease was due to their acquisition of cooper (Drawbaugh, 2014). While corporate inversions are legal, we must ask ourselves if they are ethical.
Ireland is a popular destination for corporations looking to invert. For one, while the U.S has a 35% tax rate, Ireland only taxes corporations at 12.5%. However, corporate functions need to be located in areas with good non-tax advantages. Tax savings alone do not always justify the costs of inversion (Marian, 2015). Corporations like Ireland because the country provides numerous non-tax advantages in addition to such a low corporate rate. For one, Ireland has a skilled workforce, with universities pushing students towards science and engineering. Being a member of the European Union, corporations headquartered in Ireland have access to over 500 million customers, as well as the opportunity to hire

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