1. Companies are not necessarily double-taxed on foreign profits when they enter the US - they can actually claim a foreign tax credit to offset their US taxes. See here: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/06itcorptaxsnap.pdf. There are issues with this - you cannot have a tax credit that results in a refund - but it is not a given that all profits are double-taxed.
2. Google (along with a lot of other companies) utilizes the so-called "Double Irish" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement) - and this, specifically, is a tax avoidance strategy. Thus, it is a misrepresentation to say that they are not avoiding taxes. Granted, they have passed through one local tax jurisdiction (Ireland) on their way to Bermuda, but that means that a lot of other countries, in addition to the US, do not get access to the taxes from companies that are operating in their countries.
3. US companies are already holding enormous amounts of cash on their books - but that hasn't lead to large-scale increased capital spend.
4. On 2004: the argument then (as now) was that these funds would result in jobs and new capital being spent. But that didn't happen. Instead most of the money was just paid out in dividends which really only affects, a big scale, people in the 1-2% incomes who get a lot or most of their income from dividends.
1. Companies are not necessarily double-taxed on foreign profits when they enter the US - they can actually claim a foreign tax credit to offset their US taxes. See here: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/06itcorptaxsnap.pdf. There are issues with this - you cannot have a tax credit that results in a refund - but it is not a given that all profits are double-taxed.
2. Google (along with a lot of other companies) utilizes the so-called "Double Irish" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement) - and this, specifically, is a tax avoidance strategy. Thus, it is a misrepresentation to say that they are not avoiding taxes. Granted, they have passed through one local tax jurisdiction (Ireland) on their way to Bermuda, but that means that a lot of other countries, in addition to the US, do not get access to the taxes from companies that are operating in their countries.
3. US companies are already holding enormous amounts of cash on their books - but that hasn't lead to large-scale increased capital spend.
4. On 2004: the argument then (as now) was that these funds would result in jobs and new capital being spent. But that didn't happen. Instead most of the money was just paid out in dividends which really only affects, a big scale, people in the 1-2% incomes who get a lot or most of their income from dividends.
Comments welcome!