Bloomberg: Trump Plan Aims New Foreign Tax at Apple, Other Multinationals

Currently the U.S. taxes corporate profits worldwide, no matter where they’re earned. That approach — which makes America unique among developed nations — comes with a large asterisk: Companies can defer paying tax on their overseas earnings until they return that income to the U.S., a process known as repatriation. The repatriation quirk has prompted tax-avoidant U.S. companies to shift their profit to low-tax countries and leave an estimated $2.6 trillion in earnings offshore.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reported in a 2016 study that 73 percent of Fortune 500 companies have at least one subsidiary in tax haven countries. Of those, some 58 percent of companies use at least one unit in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands. Read more