U.S. companies push hard for lower tax rate on offshore profits

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters


Mon May 15, 2017 | 9:18am EDT

By Ginger Gibson | WASHINGTON

Major U.S. multinationals are pushing the Trump administration to deepen the tax break it has already tentatively proposed on $2.6 trillion in corporate profits being held offshore, a key piece in Washington's intricate tax reform puzzle.

As President Donald Trump tries to deliver on his campaign promise to overhaul the tax code, lobbyists for technology, drug and other manufacturers are working with officials behind closed doors, six lobbyists working with various industries told Reuters.

In line with tax cuts already embraced by Republicans in the House of Representatives, the lobbyists said they are telling the White House and Treasury Department that if companies are forced to bring home, or repatriate, foreign earnings, they want a sharply reduced tax rate.

The lobbyists are making an aggressive case that cutting the tax rate on offshore profits to 10 percent from 35 percent, as the administration has indicated it may favor, is not enough. Rather, the lobbyists said they want a lower, bifurcated rate of 3.5 percent on earnings already invested abroad in illiquid assets, such as factories, and 8.75 percent on cash and liquid assets.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-repatriation-idUSKCN18B13Q

[cstanleytech]

1. I support lower corporate taxes!!!

But only for companies where more than 95% of the employees earn above a living wage and by employees I mean everyone including those that work at companies that are owned by another company or in other words no hiding behind a corporate front with a LLC owning multiple companies where the LLC gets a huge tax break because it employees 5 or 10 people that it pays well.

[IronLionZion]

2. "forced to bring home, or repatriate, foreign earnings"

Is someone forcing them to do this? Do they even have foreign earnings to repatriate?

I've also read that this is a myth. Companies won't just leave that much money elsewhere to avoid taxes. The foreign earnings are already brought here through accounting maneuvers or reinvested back into the company or paid out in dividends or used for other stuff like stock buybacks or funding overseas operations. It's not just sitting in a bank.

Republicans think we're going to get lots of jobs. Democrats think we're going to get lots of tax revenue. Neither is likely to happen.

And does anyone trust the Trump administration to do this in a way that benefits the American people in any way?

[NCjack]

3. Yeah -- a lower tax rate on offshore profits, so they can do

another round of buying each other and awarding big bonuses for the deals.