Several medical device companies are among the S&P 500 companies that have parked nearly $1 trillion in cash overseas.
The list of the 50 companies with the most cash offshore, compiled by Bloomberg, comes as Capitol Hill mulls a tax reform plan that would in part encourage companies to repatriate that money.
During last year’s campaign, the president proposed reducing the tax rate on repatriated cash from 35% to 10%; House Republicans have proposed cutting the tax to 8.75% on foreign cash and 3.5% on foreign earnings, according to the news service.
A quartet of medical device players made the list; all told, the 50 companies have $925 billion stashed offshore to avoid the tax, according to Bloomberg.
Rank | Company | Cash & marketable securities ($B) | Cash held overseas, latest filing ($B) | Cash held overseas, previous year’s filing ($B) | Change (%) | Overseas cash / total cash & marketable securities (%) |
6 | Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) | 41.9 | 41.3 | 38.2 | +8.1% | 98.6 |
7 | General Electric (NYSE:GE) | 83.5 | 35.0 | 52.9 | −33.8% | 41.9 |
21 | Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) | 13.7 | 6.0 | 6.0 | +0.0% | 43.8 |
41 | Stryker (NYSE:SYK) | 3.3 | 2.8 | 2.1 | +30.8% | 85.0 |