Credit: VOA News
Although not widely discussed, President-elect Donald Trump’s economic plan includes an estimated $2.6 trillion repatriation proposal very similar to the one that was passed by President George W. Bush in 2004 — and which didn’t do what it was supposed to do.
On his campaign website, Trump has promised to “provide a deemed repatriation of corporate profits held offshore at a one-time tax rate of 10 percent.” He has characterized this as a “tax holiday” that will encourage American companies to create jobs. American corporations are currently required to pay up to 35 percent of their earnings to the government and get credited for taxes they already paid overseas.
While the extra money that businesses earn through Trump’s plan could in theory be invested back in their businesses, thereby creating jobs, there is no guarantee that they’d do this. As Marc-Anthony Hourihan, co-head of mergers and acquisitions in the Americas for the Swiss bank UBS, explained to The New York Times on Monday, merger bankers “are sharpening their pencils with what types of deals those larger companies […]
