What should be done, if anything, to bring home $5 trillion held overseas by American businesses?

[sartre play]

Its 23 billion.

 

[task0778]

Its 23 billion.

The recent fight among Apple, Ireland, and the European Union has once again shined a spotlight on the growing trend of US companies storing cash overseas to avoid taxes.

In fact, the amount of cash held by US-based companies in foreign countries hit a record $2.5 trillion in 2015, which is roughly 14% of the US's total GDP, according to Andrew Hunter, an economist at Capital Economics, who described the increase as companies "hoarding" cash overseas.

Hunter notes that many firms are keeping the cash abroad to avoid the US's 35% corporate tax rate (though to be fair, companies are paying much less than that), which is the highest among developed market countries.

Not all US firms are taking part in the shift, however, as the foreign cash is concentrated, for the most part, in a small group of firms in a small group of sectors. Here's Hunter (emphasis added):

"Holdings of foreign cash are increasingly concentrated among a few large firms. Although Apple now has $91.5bn of earnings permanently reinvested overseas, it is not the biggest holder — General Electric and Microsoft have more than $100 billion each.

"In addition, a disproportionate share of the total is still accounted for by firms in the technology and pharmaceutical sectors. Pharmaceutical firms now hold around 27% of the total, while the share accounted for by IT firms has risen to almost 40%, up from just 12% back in 2002."

US companies are 'hoarding' a record $2.5 trillion in cash overseas

$2.5 Trillion in 2015, how much do you think it is now? Probably exceeds $3 Tril.

 

[jasonnfree]

Then they can leave that money overseas. You feel good about others making more money than you but paying less in tax??

That's what they're doing now so obviously your tax the shit out of them plan isn't working to get more investment here. I don't worry about trivial things like if someone makes more than me. I also think the entire tax system is a joke. We need a flat tax if you want it to be fair to everyone equally.

Nope, that plan is working as designed. Want your money here? Pay your taxes on it. Why should they be allowed to avoid paying tax on their income but others, like myself, cannot?

So instead they park their money overseas where it was earned and we not only don't get any taxes on it but we also don't get that money circulating back here to help the economy grow more than it currently is. I don't understand why liberals don't get this, corps aren't going to pay the high US tax rate so why not at least have more money here to invest?

Then they don't get to bring their money back here. They don't get to avoid paying their taxes while the rest of us have to. What you're promoting is to encourage all U.S. tax payers to earn their living from foreign companies to lower their own tax burden.

US taxpayers have to report and pay taxes on foreign earnings or investments, failure to do so is a crime. If you are a US citizen and live and work overseas you get a credit up to a certain amount, above which you gotta pay taxes on offshore earnings. What we've been talking about (I thought) was business and corporate taxes, which are not the same as individual income taxes.
You do realize the most other foreign countries do not tax businesses on offshore earnings?

If I, a US citizen, get in trouble in a foreign country, I'm on my own. When US corporations get in trouble in foreign countries, especially oil companies, we leave no stone unturned to bail them out, including the full force of our military and the lives of US servicemen.

 

[Siete]

theres so many tax loopholes right now if tax was an issue businesses would have never fucking left to begin with.

RW's trying to sell their trickle down talking point ... no more, no less

EARTH TO IDIOTS !

JOBS THAT ARE GONE WILL STAY GONE.



DDDDDDUUUUUUURRRRRRRR

 

[toomuchtime_]

It would be nice to have some of that money come back home.

The important thing is to look forward, not backward, so tax breaks on any of that money that is used for job producing investments here in the US and tax penalties, tariffs, etc., on imports that were funded by that money abroad. The right combination of breaks and penalties will make it more profitable to bring the money home than to keep it abroad for many companies.

 

[Siete]

Last year the IRS finally collected more in tax receipts than it did before the crash in 2007. But dig a little deeper into the numbers and it is clear we haven't returned to normal: Corporations paid nearly $100 billion less in federal income taxes last year than before the Great Recession – down nearly 40 percent as a share of GDP. In fact, corporate profits and corporate tax collections are now trending in opposite directions. Profits were up $93 billion last year – to a high of $2.1 trillion, according to the Commerce Department. Yet corporate tax payments actually fell last year by more than $15 billion.

How is this possible?

It goes way beyond inversion. The top names in American business – from Apple to Xerox – have joined in the greatest tax dodge in world history. Using clever accounting games, these corporations have siphoned majestic sums out of the country and into tax-haven shell companies – where the money is untouchable by the IRS.


The numbers are staggering. More than $2 trillion in U.S.-based multinational profits currently sit in offshore accounts, representing, by credible estimates, in excess of $500 billion in unpaid taxes. If that money were deposited in federal coffers tomorrow, it would wipe out the deficit for 2014. And every year that Congress dithers on a crackdown, America is forfeiting an approximate $90 billion in revenue.


From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression -- and they're about to do it again.

The details of corporate tax avoidance can be dizzyingly complex. But the broad strokes are simple. For more than a century, American corporations have been required to pay taxes on their global income. There's no double taxation problem; companies receive credit for taxes paid over to other governments. The logic of our system is straightforward: U.S. corporate citizens enjoy benefits that aren't cabined inside our borders. The U.S. Navy secures shipping lanes needed to transport goods from Chinese factories to ports around the world. The American legal system protects corporate patents and other intellectual property worldwide. U.S. taxpayers fund the R&D that makes many of these corporations profitable in the first place.

There is one odd hitch in our system of global taxation. The corporate tax bill – nominally 35 percent – is not due in America until the foreign profits come home. In the jargon of the corporate world, the taxes are "deferred" until the profits are "repatriated." Until then, the offshore cash can be invested and grow U.S.-tax-free, not unlike your 401(k).

 

[Cecilie1200]

It would be nice to have some of that money come back home.

Folks with money overseas should pay the tax on it and bring the money back into the U.S..

It is my understanding that American citizens already do pay taxes on their income, wherever it's earned. As for "bringing it back", do you understand that it's not your money, and none of your business?

 

[blastoff]

Round up the unpatriotic scum who run these companies, line them up against the wall, and shoot them all.

Tell the next bunch who take over that this is what's in store if you fuck up again and try to weasel out of paying your fair share to the country that allows you to operate unhindered.

So playing by the rules of the US tax code should earn one a bullet, huh?

Haven't done anything wrong, broken any law, and lefty low info dopes come up with this bullshit. No wonder Trump won and will be around for the next 7+ years.

 

[brummelben]

It would be nice to have some of that money come back home.

The important thing is to look forward, not backward, so tax breaks on any of that money that is used for job producing investments here in the US and tax penalties, tariffs, etc., on imports that were funded by that money abroad. The right combination of breaks and penalties will make it more profitable to bring the money home than to keep it abroad for many companies.

We tried that already during the Bush years, and it turned out the money was used primarily to buy back stock., not job creation

 

[toomuchtime_]

It would be nice to have some of that money come back home.

The important thing is to look forward, not backward, so tax breaks on any of that money that is used for job producing investments here in the US and tax penalties, tariffs, etc., on imports that were funded by that money abroad. The right combination of breaks and penalties will make it more profitable to bring the money home than to keep it abroad for many companies.

We tried that already during the Bush years, and it turned out the money was used primarily to buy back stock., not job creation

Well, then the law must be written this time so correct that.

 

[Siete]

It would be nice to have some of that money come back home.

The important thing is to look forward, not backward, so tax breaks on any of that money that is used for job producing investments here in the US and tax penalties, tariffs, etc., on imports that were funded by that money abroad. The right combination of breaks and penalties will make it more profitable to bring the money home than to keep it abroad for many companies.

We tried that already during the Bush years, and it turned out the money was used primarily to buy back stock., not job creation

sure we did ...43 made every effort to quell the mass exodus of jobs leaving to foreign countries, and corporations pretended he didnt even exist.

 

[brummelben]

It would be nice to have some of that money come back home.

The important thing is to look forward, not backward, so tax breaks on any of that money that is used for job producing investments here in the US and tax penalties, tariffs, etc., on imports that were funded by that money abroad. The right combination of breaks and penalties will make it more profitable to bring the money home than to keep it abroad for many companies.

We tried that already during the Bush years, and it turned out the money was used primarily to buy back stock., not job creation

Well, then the law must be written this time so correct that.

It won't happen, corporate america controls congress through donations

 

[ColonelAngus]

It would be nice to have some of that money come back home.

Folks with money overseas should pay the tax on it and bring the money back into the U.S..

It is my understanding that American citizens already do pay taxes on their income, wherever it's earned. As for "bringing it back", do you understand that it's not your money, and none of your business?

All of our money is the government's money. They decide how much of it they allow us to keep.

If you dont give the government the amount they want, you go to jail.

There is no limit on what they can take.

 

[JBond]

Lower the tax bite and the dough wil come flowing in.

wouldn't that require reducing spending or increasing debt?

Not necessarily. Strong growth can result in additional revenue.

 

[ColonelAngus]

You are taxed when you earn, you are taxed when you invest, you are taxed when you save, you are taxed when you spend, you are taxed when you die.

 

[Faun]

It would be nice to have some of that money come back home.

Folks with money overseas should pay the tax on it and bring the money back into the U.S..

It is my understanding that American citizens already do pay taxes on their income, wherever it's earned. As for "bringing it back", do you understand that it's not your money, and none of your business?

As long as they keep their money overseas, which they're certainly welcome to do, you're right, none of it is my money. However, if they want to bring that money back into the U.S., then some of it is my money as some of it belongs to all of us in the form of taxes. Why the hell would I want those taxes cut when the government had a $1.4 trillion deficit last fiscal year?

 

[Luddly Neddite]

It would be nice to have some of that money come back home.

Start with the hundreds of thousands of jobs drumpf created in various countries around the world.

 

[brummelben]

It would be nice to have some of that money come back home.

Folks with money overseas should pay the tax on it and bring the money back into the U.S..

It is my understanding that American citizens already do pay taxes on their income, wherever it's earned. As for "bringing it back", do you understand that it's not your money, and none of your business?

All of our money is the government's money. They decide how much of it they allow us to keep.

If you dont give the government the amount they want, you go to jail.

There is no limit on what they can take.

WE are the government douche bag

 

[jasonnfree]

It would be nice to have some of that money come back home.

Correct. It would give businesses the tax free cash they need to automate their operations and lay off workers.

 

[danielpalos]

It would be nice to have some of that money come back home.

/---- waive the taxes. What's so complicated about that?

treat them like "poor capitalists" and make them lose their capital gains preference, and steak and lobster privileges, if they don't.