Wealthy corporations with a trillion dollars stashed offshore lobby for a 'holiday' from U.S. taxes

Rich corporations with money offshore want a tax holiday; Sen. Carl Levin says, 'I want them to pay their taxes like the rest of us'

By John Aloysius Farrell and Aaron Mehta
6:00 am, October 24, 2011, Updated: 6:24 am, October 24, 2011

Goaded by battalions of corporate lobbyists, members of Congress are working to give a select group of U.S. multinational firms like Apple, Oracle and Pfizer a lavish tax break on a trillion dollars stashed offshore.


The avowed goal is to generate jobs and investment, but the offshore tax holiday was tried before, in 2004, and the lion’s share of the benefits went not to unemployed workers and their families, but to corporate shareholders and executives.