Shire gets hefty tax refund in Canada; says AbbVie scuppered bid for rival

Ireland headquartered drugmaker Shire (LSE: SHP) said this morning that its Canadian subsidiary has received assessments from the Canadian revenue authorities, entitling it to total cash refunds equivalent to $410 million.

Following receipt of the assessments, the company has recorded a net credit to income taxes amounting to $216 million. This income tax credit will be excluded from non-generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) income, and will not impact Shire’s non-GAAP core effective tax rate in 2014.

The assessments do not impact the company’s current or future income tax profile, and Shire says it intends to use the cash receipts to repay debt, providing the drugmaker with increased capacity to invest in focussed business development activities.