Martin A. Sullivan (Tax Analysts) has published Foreign Tax Profits of the Top 50 U.S. Companies, 132 Tax Notes 330 (July 25, 2011):
In 2010 America’s 50 most profitable companies generated nearly $600 billion of profits before taxes —38% of all U.S. profits. The average effective corporate tax rate reported to shareholders was 26%. Foreign profits comprised 50% of worldwide profits, and the average foreign effective tax rate was 25%. These 50 firms accumulated a total of $681 billion in undistributed foreign profits for which they have not booked any U.S. tax liability. The WIN America coalition is seeking a repatriation holiday to bring that $681 billion back to the United States.
Of those 50 companies, seven are listed as supporters on the WINAmerica coalition website: Apple, Cisco Systems, Devon Energy, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, and Pfizer. These seven companies had a total of $164 billion in accumulated undistributed foreign profits. On average, their foreign effective tax rate was 12%.
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