Only 5% Of An Estimated $2.7 Trillion In Profits Parked Abroad Has Returned To US After GOP Tax Cuts

Just $143 billion of an estimated $2.7 trillion in stockpiled overseas profits has been repatriated back to the U.S. following the GOP tax law, and after President Trump’s assertion that over $4 trillion would be “brought back very shorty,” according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal.

“U.S. companies have moved cautiously in repatriating profits stockpiled overseas in response to last year’s tax-law rewrite, after the Trump administration’s assertions that trillions of dollars would come home quickly,” WSJ’s Richard Rubin and Theo Francis report.

“We expect to have in excess of $4 trillion brought back very shortly,” Trump said at his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., in August. “Over $4 [trillion], but close to $5 trillion, will be brought back into our country. This is money that would never, ever be seen again by the workers and the people of our country.”

Axios added:

The big picture: “The Wall Street Journal reviewed securities filings from 108 publicly traded companies accounting for the vast majority of an estimated $2.7 trillion in profits parked abroad, and asked each company what it was doing with the funds. In their filings and responses, they said they have repatriated about $143 billion so far this year… About two-thirds of the money came from two corporations—networking-equipment giant Cisco Systems Inc. and drugmaker Gilead Sciences.”