President-elect Donald Trump’s corporate tax reform plan is a real possibility in 2017.
Fixing flaws in the U. S. corporate tax code would have a huge impact on U. S. companies, many of whom have gotten very good at using current laws to drastically reduce their tax bills.
One of the most prominent ploys is for multinational companies to keep their foreign earnings stashed overseas. By not bringing those profits home, these companies avoid paying the 35% U. S. corporate tax.
Right now, U. S. companies have about $2.6 trillion in foreign earnings waiting to be repatriated. That amount has doubled just since 2008 and is six times higher than it was in 2002.
Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) tops the list of these companies, with roughly $200 billion in cash stashed overseas. Other ‘tax haven’ companies include Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) with about $110 billion, General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) with about $100 billion, and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) with about $80 billion.
Other companies have become expert at exploiting tax loopholes. In some cases, these companies pay little or no tax despite making billions in profits.
Here’s how they do it…
This post was published at Wall Street Examiner by David Zeiler ‘ November 14, 2016.
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