[How corporations avoid paying income taxes by Kathleen Pender] "...U.S. companies generally pay no tax on their foreign profits until they repatriate them or bring them back home.
Rather than pay the tax, most U.S. multinationals let their overseas profits accumulate offshore until they can persuade Congress to give them a tax holiday on repatriated profits.
In 2004, Congress passed a law that gave U.S. companies a one-time chance to repatriate their foreign profits at an effective tax rate of 5.25 percent. (The actual rate was closer to 3.7 percent after foreign tax credits...) Full text: How corporations avoid paying income taxes
