Senate committee finds most 'trapped' offshore income is already in U.S.

By John Aloysius Farrell
6:00 am, December 15, 2011 Updated: 6:00 am, December 15, 2011

 

A select group of U.S. multinational corporations have been furiously lobbying for a tax holiday, they say, to bring more than a trillion dollars in so-called “trapped” foreign earnings back home and invest it in the American economy.

But a Senate report released Thursday shows the money is anything but trapped. Some of the richest firms have already brought hundreds of billions of dollars back to America, without paying U.S. taxes, and invested it in US banks, bonds, stocks and other assets.