My Letter to Walgreens Expressing my Opposition to them Potentially Relocating their Headquarters to Switzerland

Today, Rep. Jan Schakowsky sent a letter to Walgreens CEO Gregory Wasson expressing her opposition to the Illinois company’s rumored consideration of a plan to relocate its headquarters to Switzerland in order to avoid U.S. taxes. The move, called inversion, allows Walgreens to avoid U.S. taxation by purchasing a smaller European firm and relocating its headquarters on paper, while maintaining the majority of its business operations in the United States. Doing so would allow the company to dodge an estimated $4 billion in taxes over the next five years.

Rep. Schakowsky has introduced a number of bills – including H.R. 694, the Corporate Tax Fairness Act and H.R. 929, the Patriot Corporations of America Act – that would make it more difficult for U.S. companies to shift jobs and profits overseas and reward companies that expand here at home. She is also an original cosponsor of H.R. 4679, the Stop Corporate Inversions Act, which would close the loophole that rewards inversions. Rep. Schakowsky reminded Mr. Wasson that Walgreens has benefitted in numerous ways from its U.S. – and Illinois – presence, and warned him that customers are not likely to overlook tax dodging. Read her full letter here.