There is occasional talk of a tax amnesty that would bring the money back.

Thats a doubled edged sword.

The whole reason why companies keep money overseas is because they are waiting for a tax amnesty deal.

But if they knew that no tax deal was EVER coming, then they'd be more willing to bring it back over.

Even better would be if we just dumped the US Corporate income tax, it's essentially a tax on investment and reinvestment. Not only would all of the money would come back but more of it would stay here. The profits will still get taxed when paid out as dividends.

But right now we have high corporate rates. We double-tax the profits with an average rate of around 50% when paid out as dividends (whether you are in the lowest or highest bracket, little difference). We single-tax reinvestment of the profits at around 40% with state income taxes included.

Do foreign investors pay any tax on profits that turn into dividends if the corporate tax rate goes to 0%?

What about on the capital gains that results if the money is used on stock buybacks instead?

If the corporate rate goes to 0%, capital gains and dividends should be taxed as ordinary income, and the top income tax brackets should be pushed up to their historic 1950's levels, and the profits going out to foreign investors needs to be taxed somehow. Trickle down clearly doesn't work, and we need to start fixing this situation.

What makes you think they haven't already hired lobbyists for this?

As money influenced as the US system is, you can't just order any legislation you want for a price.

How do you explain the recent changes with ISPs being allowed to sell browsing histories? I get that not anything can be paid for, but it's not a good situation.