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From CBS News
When Congress passed the sweeping tax cut legislation late last year, one of its promised benefits was what would surely be a massive amount of repatriation of U.S. corporate profits held overseas for years to avoid the U.S. taxes on those gains. And in the three months ended in June, U.S. companies brought back roughly $170 billion in overseas profits, according to government report released this week.
That may sound like a lot, but it's far less than the $295 billion firms repatriated in the first quarter. The figure is about 17 percent of the the estimated $2.7 trillion held overseas, funds that have been stockpiled over years by huge companies such as Apple and Pfizer. Keeping profits earned overseas outside the U.S. helps companies cut their U.S. corporate tax bill, but they can't use those funds to invest at home.
The new tax law aimed to address that by using a lower, one-time 15.5 percent tax rate as an incentive to bring the funds back, with the idea that companies will invest in their U.S. operations, add jobs and boost the economy. President Donald Trump advocated for this portion of the law, predicting before the tax bill's passage that a mammoth $4 trillion would be repatriated.
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal published an analysis of securities filings from 108 publicly traded companies that hold most of that $2.7 trillion, asking each company how it's using the money. About two-thirds of the $143 billion in public company repatriated funds the Journal identified came from two companies: Cisco Systems and drugmaker Gilead Sciences.
COMMENT:-
It appears that the largest share of the money that was brought into the US was used to create artificial shortages (of stocks) in order to drive up prices (of stocks) which, naturally, drove up the DJIA and made it look like the US economy was doing better than it actually was doing (which wasn't all that bad because its performance was pretty much in line with the trend line of the preceding decade).
Companies aren't rushing to bring home overseas cash
When Congress passed the sweeping tax cut legislation late last year, one of its promised benefits was what would surely be a massive amount of repatriation of U.S. corporate profits held overseas for years to avoid the U.S. taxes on those gains. And in the three months ended in June, U.S. companies brought back roughly $170 billion in overseas profits, according to government report released this week.
That may sound like a lot, but it's far less than the $295 billion firms repatriated in the first quarter. The figure is about 17 percent of the the estimated $2.7 trillion held overseas, funds that have been stockpiled over years by huge companies such as Apple and Pfizer. Keeping profits earned overseas outside the U.S. helps companies cut their U.S. corporate tax bill, but they can't use those funds to invest at home.
The new tax law aimed to address that by using a lower, one-time 15.5 percent tax rate as an incentive to bring the funds back, with the idea that companies will invest in their U.S. operations, add jobs and boost the economy. President Donald Trump advocated for this portion of the law, predicting before the tax bill's passage that a mammoth $4 trillion would be repatriated.
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal published an analysis of securities filings from 108 publicly traded companies that hold most of that $2.7 trillion, asking each company how it's using the money. About two-thirds of the $143 billion in public company repatriated funds the Journal identified came from two companies: Cisco Systems and drugmaker Gilead Sciences.
COMMENT:-
It appears that the largest share of the money that was brought into the US was used to create artificial shortages (of stocks) in order to drive up prices (of stocks) which, naturally, drove up the DJIA and made it look like the US economy was doing better than it actually was doing (which wasn't all that bad because its performance was pretty much in line with the trend line of the preceding decade).