Tax inversion takes place when a corporate changes its head office jurisdiction and obtains a tax advantage by doing so.  The low corporate tax rates in Ireland have made it a well-known inversion location. Three Irish firms - Arthur Cox, A&L Goodbody and Matheson - are said to be making pitches in the US for this kind of work. Conor Hurley, Arthur Cox’s head of tax, said: ‘M&A is one of a number of important areas for us and inversion work is part of that but we are a full service law firm.’Also understood to be doing US pitches are Stibbe, NautaDutilh and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek from the Netherlands and, from the UK, Slaughter and May and Macfarlanes.

Corporate deserters

Meanwhile, yesterday, President Barack Obama attacked 'corporate deserters' who wanted to leave the US in this way. He quoted an unnamed lawyer who had called inversion 'the holy grail of tax avoidance schemes' and said: 'My attitude is: I don’t care if it’s legal. It’s wrong . . . You don’t get to pick the rate you pay.' Source: Reuters and Financial Times