With the election season behind us, as a nation it’s time we come together and quickly address the serious challenges facing the U.S. economy and American workers.  Our number-one goal must be to restore confidence in our economy and put people back to work.

As a U.S.-based multinational company, Cisco is committed to the continued economic growth and technological leadership of the United States.  Given that it is the world’s largest economy, the United States must continue to drive global economic stability through policies that create jobs, promote innovation and foster new opportunities at home and abroad.  If we don’t, we run the risk of being left behind.  Just this week, a China-based company claims to have developed the fastest supercomputer in the world. This kind of innovation has previously been a hallmark of the United States—a leadership position created by commitment and investment from both government and the private sector.  This country must have an environment where innovation and investment is encouraged and rewarded.

Currently, however, U.S. tax policy does the opposite.  Incremental tax rates as high as 35% on money made overseas discourages companies such as Cisco from bringing back these resources  and investing them at home – whether to create new jobs, boost R&D spending, or return value to shareholders.  This high taxation of repatriated foreign earnings is in marked contrast to the tax practices of almost all of the world’s major economies—Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Australia, Canada, Russia, and the Netherlands, to name a few.

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Tags: competition, economy, growth, innovation, investment, jobs, leadership, repatriation

Today, in the Wall Street Journal, Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers and Oracle President Safra Catz wrote an op-ed on the topic of repatriation of foreign earnings. Entitled, “The Overseas Profits Elephant in the Room: There’s a trillion dollars waiting to be repatriated if tax policy is right,” (subscription required) Chambers and Catz state:

“One trillion dollars is roughly the amount of earnings that American companies have in their foreign operations—and that they could repatriate to the United States. That money, in turn, could be invested in U.S. jobs, capital assets, research and development, and more.

But for U.S companies such repatriation of earnings carries a significant penalty: a federal tax of up to 35%. This means that U.S. companies can, without significant consequence, use their foreign earnings to invest in any country in the world—except here.”

There is quite a discussion on this topic on the Wall Street Journal’s website currently and, of course, we’d love to hear your opinion here as well.

By the way, Chambers and Catz also offer an idea for hiring an additional 2 million new workers as a result of allowing these foreign earnings to be repatriated.

Tags: jobs, john chambers, Oracle, repatriation, safra catz, tax policy