Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Finally, Silicon Valley and Donald Trump agree on something: Taxes

The president’s early blueprint for tax reform wins some support from the tech sector.

President Trump Meets with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin at Treasury Department
President Trump Meets with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin at Treasury Department
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (l) and President Donald Trump
Shawn Thew / Getty

Silicon Valley’s top tech executives have tangled with President Donald Trump over everything from his travel ban to his approach on issues like climate change.

But the likes of Apple and Google appear to have put aside their differences with the Republican commander-in-chief, after he unveiled a tax reform plan on Wednesday that could dramatically lower their tax bills and help them return to the U.S. billions of dollars in profits currently overseas.

Trump’s plan is still just an early set of ideas — it’s a single page, not some complex, comprehensive piece of legislation — and it’s already drawing complaints from Congress about its cost.

But the contours of it are catnip to the tech industry. Under his blueprint, for example, the corporate tax rate would fall to 15 percent, a major decrease from the current 35 percent rate. The plan also backs shifting the U.S. to a territorial tax system, meaning that only U.S.-based companies’ domestic earnings could be taxed.

And it’d make it significant cheaper for companies to return their foreign profits to the United States. Currently, companies are taxed at a rate of 35 percent when they repatriate those dollars. If Trump has his way, though, businesses might get a one-time tax break — perhaps a rate even as low as 10 percent — to bring their cash back.

That’s a major boon for the tech sector, where five companies alone are estimated to have $505 billion in cash overseas, according to an analysis done last year by Moody’s Investors Service. But the idea, known as a repatriation holiday, hasn’t always delivered the economic benefits its proponents claim.

Offshore cash: By the end of 2016, five tech giants were believed to have about $505 billion overseas. They could bring some of it back under the right tax conditions.

The likes of Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Intel — through their leading Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group — offered rare praise of Trump on Wednesday.

“We stand ready to support tax reform that lowers the corporate rate, moves to a territorial system in which profits are taxed where they occur and invests in innovation that is needed to drive our economy to new heights of prosperity and job creation for the American people,” said Andy Halataei, the senior vice president for government affairs at the Information Technology Industry Council. “We appreciate today’s announcement from the Trump administration and see it as a step toward advancing these objectives.”

Tech giants have lobbied for years to advance robust reforms to U.S. tax laws, without much success. That includes Apple, where CEO Tim Cook has worked vigorously behind the scenes to make his case to congressional lawmakers and Trump administration officials. Others, like Google and Microsoft, have devoted millions of dollars toward lobbying federal regulators to lessen their tax bills, federal records show.

As part of the tech industry’s push, those companies also fought aggressively against applying a new special tax on many imports, an idea called border adjustment. The idea is backed by the likes of House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., but so far, Trump hasn’t pursued it.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh