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If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them: The U.S. Solution to the Issue of Corporate Inversions

Scott DeAngelis is a J.D./Ph.D. candidate studying Law and Economics at Vanderbilt University Law School. His note addresses corporate inversions. There is an old proverb, “If you can’t beat them, join them,” that suggests that those who cannot win against some group should stop fighting and instead band together with them. It seems clear that when it comes to corporate inversions, the United States cannot win. Instead, countries overseas have taken advantage of tax break schemes to lure multinational companies away from the United States. This Note suggests that to prevent further foreign inversions, the United States should join these foreign countries in two ways. First, the United States should put its support behind the OECD’s plan of a multilateral instrument that would eliminate some of the unfair tax practices that facilitate controversial inversions. Second, the United States should implement its own patent box policy immediately, as there is no guarantee that the OECD’s multilateral instrument will come to fruition.

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