Can Exxon Keep Billions of Dollars Overseas?

Investing

Published: December 5, 2016 9:05 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 5:08 pm

Donald Trump says he will punish American companies that move or keep money overseas. Can companies that have CEOs with ties to his administration avoid the problem? It is too early to say, but the conflict could put Trump in a bind. There is a rumor that Rex Tillerson, Exxon Mobil Corp.’s (NYSE: XOM) chief executive officer, may be considered as a candidate for Secretary of State

Exxon has shown up on several lists of American companies that keep money offshore to avoid U.S. taxes. In its case, the sum has been put as high as $47 billion. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) also appears on many of these lists. Former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin was just been nominated to be Secretary of the Treasury.

One of the primary sources of which companies employ this strategy is Oxfam America. The largest of these companies, according to the organization’s research:

The Oxfam report analyzed the tax practices of the 50 largest public companies in the US according to the Forbes 2000 list: Alphabet (Google), American Express, American International Group (AIG), Amgen, Apple, AT&T, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, Boeing, Capital One Financial, Caterpillar, Chevron, Cisco Systems, Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Comcast, ConocoPhillips, CVS Health, Dow Chemical, Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor, General Electric, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Honeywell International, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, Merck, MetLife, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Oracle, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Phillips 66, Procter & Gamble, Prudential Financial, Qualcomm, Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., United Technologies, UnitedHealth Group, US Bancorp, Verizon Communications, Wal-Mart Stores, Walt Disney, and Wells Fargo.

Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Ginni Rometty of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) already have agreed to do work for the new administration.

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