Republicans and business groups were joined by two relatively liberal House Democrats today in calling for a special low tax rate to encourage companies to bring foreign profits home, something they tend to avoid unless incentivized otherwise, as they were by the Bush administration in 2004.
Corporations with as much as $1 trillion in profits parked overseas should be allowed to bring that money to the U.S. without spending the repatriated funds on job creation, several House Democrats said.
The comments from Democratic Representatives Loretta Sanchez of California and Jared Polis of Colorado could provide new support to a campaign for a repatriation holiday backed by companies including Google Inc. (GOOG), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) and Brown- Forman Corp. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, has said Congress should pass repatriation legislation before tackling a broader overhaul of the tax code.
The move is opposed by Dem Congressional leaders and the White House, and seems more likely to resemble a job-creation project rather than actually become one. Results last time around were disappointing; ThinkProgress offers a useful summary of the extent to which fresh capital seemed to go only to executive compensation and stocks, not hiring. [Bloomberg] [Think Progress]
