Corporate inversion is the flavor of the week on the 24-hour views channels and, like most hastily concocted sound bites, its meaning and relevance can be confusing. Instead of going into a long, technical explanation of just what it is, I'm just going to throw out a few terms and names that should give you a clear picture of what a business undergoing corporate inversion is doing.
Let's start with Defector. Defectors are what a lot of Russian ballet dancers were back in the Soviet Union days. Those dancers were skipping Russia left and right and who could blame them? Ever see those shoes they make those poor people wear? You might leave your home, your family, and every one who speaks your language just to get a pair of comfortable shoes, too!
So someone who turns their back on their own country and becomes a citizen of another is known as a defector. The USA has historically been pro-defection when being the country of landing. The increase in Russian defectors coincided with a huge increase in sales of leggings back in the 70s and 80s.
Another word I'd like to throw out is Traitor. Now a traitor is something a bit more, and different, than a defector. A traitor is someone who not only turns their back on their own country, they sell them out. They seek to harm their own country. This may be by stealing something and giving it to another country, or it could be by simply turning your gun away from that 8 point buck and pointing it at your hunting buddies. Whichever, you are a traitor and you probably aren't going to be welcomed back to the party.
America's most famous traitor was Benedict Arnold. He was an American general in the Revolutionary War who was in charge of the fort at West Point. He became disgruntled because he was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress and did what any good weasel would do: he secretly joined the other side and collected a very large sum of money. His plot to turn over West Point was discovered at the last minute and he high tailed it to a ship that carried him across the ocean away from the noose that was waiting for him.
This brings me back to corporate inversion. Basically, it is a tactic that allows an American headquartered corporation to merge with a foreign corporation and claim they are no longer American, but whatever the foreign corporation's home is. The reason it is done is to keep from paying taxes in the good old USA.
This is legal according to current laws written by our corporate representatives in Washington, DC. Any corporation can decide they don't want to contribute their taxes to American society, merge with a business from say Russia or Iran, and declare themselves Russian or Iranian, where it's way easier to hide profits made in America. They can do it without even moving their actual headquarters. They can do this because champions of corporate power like Mitch McConnell are making laws for them.
It should be noted that only corporations can legally do this, not people. People have to dodge taxes the old fashioned way: by hiding money in mason jars in the back yard. Your American back yard.