March28,2019

On March 27, a quarterly report released from the U.S. Commerce Department showed American firms brought $664.9 billion of offshore profits back to home in 2018, falling well short of the $4 trillion that President Trump predicted would return as the result of the 2017 tax overhaul. But in touting the tax overhaul, President Trump predicted trillions in offshore profits would return to the U.S., creating jobs and boosting investment.

However, investment banks and think tanks have had doubts in the tax-law changes’ bringing about the level of repatriation that President Trump claimed. Actually, U.S. companies repatriated $85.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018 and $579 billion in the first three quarters. Instead, short by 3.3 trillion, the data shows just a fraction of what is expected to be back in 2018.

According to the data from Citigroup Inc. companies in the S&P 500 repurchased more than $800 billion of shares in 2018. A Federal Reserve’s study also proves corporations have been plowing much of their repatriated cash into stock buybacks hitting a record $1.1 trillion in 2018.