Treasury could act next week to prevent companies from leaving U.S.

The Treasury Department could act as soon as next week to stop companies from moving their headquarters out of the U.S. for tax purposes, a top Democratic tax lawmaker said Friday.

“They’re preparing to act and they’ll act as soon as they’re ready,” said Rep. Sander Levin, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over tax issues.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew spoke with Levin on Wednesday, the congressman said, and explained that he would not wait for Congress to go home before taking unilateral action. “He said they would act as soon as they were ready, so that could be next week,” the Michigan Democrat said at a press event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

With his brother, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., Levin has written legislation to tighten the rules restricting so-called tax inversions, which are tax maneuvers in which U.S. businesses buy a company in a low-tax country to move their headquarters there.

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