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Article snippet: Over the past few decades, some of the largest companies in the United States made a big bet: By stashing hundreds of billions of dollars of profits offshore, they could slash their taxes and bolster their profits. It would take a generation to see if the strategy would fully pay off, because the law allowed companies only to defer the taxes on overseas earnings, not to permanently avoid them. Would they ever be able to bring the profits back to the United States without incurring huge tax bills? Some 20 years after the tax-avoiding technique became widespread, it is poised to pay off in a big way. The Republican tax bills making their way through the House and Senate would allow companies to bring nearly $3 trillion in profits home, at greatly reduced tax rates. In a tax-overhaul package that would provide the greatest benefits to wealthy individuals and corporations, the so-called repatriation provision stands out. It would give companies a permanent tax break of about half a trillion dollars, rewarding the likes of Google, Apple, Pfizer and General Electric. Corporate America claims that about $3 trillion in profits were generated in places like Bermuda, Grand Cayman and Luxembourg. The tax breaks for bringing home such offshore profits “confirm the central tenet of tax planning that a tax deferred is a tax avoided,” said David Miller, a tax lawyer at Proskauer Rose. “For decades, U.S. multinationals have shifted profits abroad and deferred their taxes on them... Link to the full article to read more