Microsoft's Foreign Earnings: Tax Strategy

Abstract

ABSTRACT The high corporate tax rate and the complexity of the U.S. tax code provide U.S. multinationals with the incentives and opportunities to shift income to foreign low-tax jurisdictions. In theory, U.S. corporations are taxed at the statutory rate of 35 percent on their worldwide income, but income earned by an active Controlled Foreign Corporation (CFC) is usually not taxed until it is repatriated to the parent company in the U.S. As a result, trillions of dollars in cash and investments sit in offshore companies, awaiting a repatriation tax holiday. Much of these earnings are held by technology companies. The case looks at Microsoft Corporation, a company with $60.8 billion in unrepatriated earnings as of 2012. The case considers tax havens, nonrepatriation of earnings, cost-sharing arrangements, and transfer pricing and is intended to expose students to the subtleties and complexities of corporate tax strategies. Although the case is set in 2012, the goal of the case is to demonstrate to the students the complex environment in which multinational corporations operate and is independent of any particular tax regime.