I've got a hot tip. Walgreens is merging with a pharmaceutical company located in the UK. They are talking about moving their HQ to the UK which would give the company a sizable tax break. My District Manager kept hinting around that this would help the stock value.
Take it for what it's worth.
Link:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-04-15/opinion/ct-will-walgreens-move-to-switzerland-edit-0415-jm-20140415_1_tax-failure-tax-rate-tax-code
Well, the article itself states Bern, Switzerland. But at any rate, shareholders like lower taxes and Switzerland would welcome Walgreen's with open arms. It's a good debate topic.
I've heard at my work that drafts of tax overhauls have been floating where the 35% corporate rate is reduced to 25%, but companies would lose their ability to deduct certain items like R&D tax credits, etc. and have
all foreign income taxed at the new 25% tax rate. If that were to happen, which is catastrophically worse than the current 35% tax rate with all foreign income excluded, every large multi-national with a HQ in the US will be a ghost out of the US faster than you can blink and move to Switzerland and other places where they can negotiate the tax rate down in exchange for infrastructure and job creation like Ireland, Belgium, etc. This is all on the lawmakers, as companies will not break the law, but will do everything in their own power to avoid paying $0.01 in taxes more than they have to.
Which pharm company is Walgreens merging with? I didn't see one mentioned in the article. It did make mention of the fact that Walgreens has merged with EU retailer Boots. Would be interesting, are they trying to vertically integrate the supply chain direct from the pharma company their trying to acquire to the consumer via a uniform supply chain?