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UpInArms

(51,284 posts)
Wed Dec 19, 2018, 12:30 PM Dec 2018

U.S. firms have stopped bringing 'trapped' foreign profits home

Source: Marketwatch

American companies have largely stopped bringing “trapped” foreign profits home, according to new government data released Wednesday.

The Trump administration asserted that last year’s tax-law changes, which got rid of what firms thought was a tax penalty on repatriation, would lead to trillions of dollars returning home quickly to give the domestic economy a shot in the arm.

The third-quarter current account data, released Wednesday, show that corporations actually stockpiled more profits overseas in the third quarter after $218 billion “came home” in the first two quarters of the year.

This is a small fraction of the estimated $2.6 trillion in profits that have been sheltered overseas by U.S. corporations.



Read more: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-firms-have-stopped-bringing-trapped-foreign-profits-home-2018-12-19?mod=bnbh



Another failed Republican policy ...

These people (if you can call them that) are bad for our country
13 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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wasupaloopa

(4,516 posts)
1. The right knew what they were doing. The lobby for the rich and coporations had this figured out.
Wed Dec 19, 2018, 12:36 PM
Dec 2018

They needed a compliant congress to put it into play.

The thing that gets me is that the right wingers in congress are lackeys to the wealthy. They aren't going to be any better off giving to the 1% than they would have been giving to the working class.

Anyone their age with the slightest interest in history knows what life was like for the working class before the New Deal, yet they are taking us back to pre New Deal ways.

What does it get them?

SWBTATTReg

(22,166 posts)
2. Another 'failed' so called benefit of the 2018 tax cut and jobs bill, which supposedly promised ...
Wed Dec 19, 2018, 12:55 PM
Dec 2018

the whole world (sarcasm here) to come home to America and bring trillions!! And of course the other negative benefit of this tax cut bill was to give 83% of the tax cuts to the 1%ers, and artificially 'goose' the economy into hyper drive, which the already robust economy didn't need.

KY_EnviroGuy

(14,494 posts)
5. Another damning quote from the article....
Wed Dec 19, 2018, 02:46 PM
Dec 2018

(snip)

Some analysts said the Trump tax bill actually made it easier for companies to shift revenue, profit, operations investment and employment to other countries.

Which in turn leads us to this article:

Opinion: Republican tax plan will encourage more corporate offshore tax avoidance
By Rex Nutting Published: Nov 2, 2017 11:27 a.m. ET
Shifting to a territorial tax is the wrong move because it encourages companies to leave America

Link: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-ryan-tax-plan-will-encourage-more-corporate-offshore-tax-avoidance-2017-10-24

--------
I also wonder what those corporations did with that $218 billion "brought back". Big bonuses and stock buybacks would be my guess.

...............

KY_EnviroGuy

(14,494 posts)
10. Yep, and trotted out by the Repugs as...
Wed Dec 19, 2018, 03:23 PM
Dec 2018

the greatest thing for America since running water and sliced bread.

And, it's at least the third time they've pulled this ruse just in my fading memory (Raygun, W, and now tRump).

....

TheBlackAdder

(28,216 posts)
6. Koch & Disney ship their profits offshore to avoid US taxes, paying only 0.75% in Luxembourg.
Wed Dec 19, 2018, 03:09 PM
Dec 2018

.


Using Earnst & Young, they do a 5 nation hop that effectively washes the money from US taxes.

This is a structure put in place by the GOPers.


https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/business/disney-and-koch-industries-had-luxembourg-tax-deals-journalists-group-says.html

.

Judi Lynn

(160,630 posts)
8. Maybe Trump actually only makes decisions which benefit him directly.
Wed Dec 19, 2018, 03:14 PM
Dec 2018

What if the one who benefits the most from his policies is Trump, personally?

 

bitterross

(4,066 posts)
11. So, they're going to spend the money overseas - obviously.
Wed Dec 19, 2018, 03:26 PM
Dec 2018

If they're stockpiling the money overseas, are they keeping it in Euros or other non-US Dollar currencies? The article doesn't say.

I'd think that if you were planning on more operations overseas you would naturally keep your cash in the country in which you wish to do more business. Not bring it into the US and maybe have some FX costs.

KY_EnviroGuy

(14,494 posts)
12. A good time to re-visit a great article...
Wed Dec 19, 2018, 03:41 PM
Dec 2018
Thom Hartmann: How the GOP Used a Two Santa Clauses Tactic to Con America for Nearly 40 Years
This scam has been killing wages and enriching billionaires for decades.
By Thom Hartmann / AlterNet February 11, 2018

(WARNING: have eye bleach ready - big photo of Raygun)

Link: https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/two-santa-clauses-or-how-gop-conned-america-nearly-40-years

(snip)
The only thing wrong with the U.S. economy is the failure of the Republican Party to play Santa Claus.
-Jude Wanniski, March 6, 1976

The Republican Party has been running a long con on America since Reagan’s inauguration, and somehow our nation’s media has missed it – even though it was announced in The Wall Street Journal in the 1970s and the GOP has clung tenaciously to it ever since.

In fact, Republican strategist Jude Wanniski’s 1974 “Two Santa Clauses Theory” has been the main reason why the GOP has succeeded in producing our last two Republican presidents, Bush and Trump (despite losing the popular vote both times). It’s also why Reagan’s economy seemed to be “good.”

Here’s how it works, laid it out in simple summary........

We must somehow stop this deadly cycle.......... ........
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