Walgreens is planning to become Swiss to avoid paying taxes:
Walgreens:Tax dodger
2 days ago, I wrote a short diary about possibly using Medicare's buying power to stop these tax evaders. Should have known that someone more knowledgable and thoughtful had noticed that these corporations get rich on payments from our tax dollars!
Update: WaPo Op-ed by SecTreas Lew on the urgency of dealing with the inversion loophole:
WaPo Op Ed
More below.
Walgreens is a poster child for wanting all the US government business, but none of the citizen obligation:
It will also become inversion’s most shameless exploiter: nearly a quarter of the company’s revenues come from Medicare and Medicaid, and its profits soared by 68 percent when Obamacare brought it new customers last quarter.
There's a state tax interest also:
The Illinois General Assembly in 2012 even agreed to give Walgreens $46 million in tax credits over 10 years.
And yes, this is a big deal:
Instead, Walgreens is poised to take our money and run, leaving everyday taxpayers holding the bill. According to a study by Americans for Fair Taxes and Change to Win Retail Initiatives, a Walgreens inversion could cost U.S. taxpayers more than $4 billion over the first 5 years. That’s enough to fund 1.5 years’ prescriptions for all VA veterans, 639,000 new Medicaid enrollments, or 3.5 million new youth enrollments under the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
This loophole needs to get closed immediately, or Medicare needs to suggest that it might change the rules to insist that prescriptions get filled through American pharmacies.