Durbin to home state company: Don’t leave

The Senate’s No. 2 Democrat is calling on an American fertilizer company to keep its official address in the U.S.

CF Industries, based in Deerfield, Ill., announced last week that it would buy a range of facilities from a Dutch competitor, OCI, in an $8 billion deal.

{mosads}As part of the deal, CF will become a subsidiary of a new British holding company. CF’s CEO Tony Will said last week that European headquarters was a major part of the deal, making it the latest U.S. corporation to head offshore, in large part because of taxes.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D), one of CF’s home state senators, said Tuesday that the company’s move was “simply wrong.”

“When a company with a proud history in the United States walks away from our nation for a tax break and a temporary boost to its bottom line, one has to ask whether short-term profit is your only measure of corporate responsibility and success,” Durbin said, noting that the company had benefitted from investments from U.S. taxpayers. 

Democrats have railed against the offshore tax deals, known as inversions, for more than a year now. 

In those sorts of agreements, U.S. companies often merge with a smaller foreign competitor to take advantage of lower corporate tax rates elsewhere in the world. 

The companies frequently change little about their business practices in the process. For instance, the new CF Industries, while based in Britain, will still have its main executive offices in Illinois.