The US government estimates that the loss to the US tax coffers as a result of these transfers will amount to US$19.5b over the next ten years. But a Bloomberg study of the lawyers behind the scenes concludes that ‘former officials…use skills and contacts honed in office to help companies legally outmaneuver the government’.  Inversions had been going on for a decade until they became so numerous that they came to the attention of policy makers, leading to a crackdown introduced this year by President Obama. 

International tax counsel

In the last 14 years, each of the five people who were the lead international tax counsel at the US Treasury went on to join private practice. Susan Borkowski, an accountancy professor at Philadelphia’s La Salle University, said: ‘The government loses. It’s very hard to be sitting across from someone that you know -- you may have dealt with that company in the past and you know you’re going to deal with it in the future -- and be totally objective.’ Source: Bloomberg