Corporations brought US$100.2 billion of overseas profits back to the United States in the first quarter, marking $876.8 billion that has returned since Congress overhauled the international tax system and prodded companies to repatriate more.

The cash that has come back to the U.S. falls short of the $4 trillion President Donald Trump said would return as a result of the 2017 tax law. Investment banks and think tanks have estimated that U.S. corporations actually held $1.5 trillion to $2.5 trillion in offshore funds at the time the law was enacted.

While the pace at which companies are bringing back profits has slowed, the figure for the fourth quarter of last year was revised up, from $85.9 billion to $146.6 billion.

Before the new tax law, companies kept much of their overseas profit offshore to avoid a 35 percent tax that kicked in when they brought the money back to the U.S. The Republican tax law set a one-time 15.5 percent tax rate on cash and 8 percent on non-cash or illiquid assets, regardless of where the profits sat.

However, nearly half of the offshore profits may never come back to the United States because they are held in illiquid assets that can't easily be repatriated, according to a 2016 paper led by Jennifer Blouin, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. Only about 54 percent of offshore profits are held in cash, according to her research.

The repatriation figures were part of a quarterly report on the current-account deficit, which narrowed to $130.4 billion in the January to March period, from $143.9 billion. The gap is considered the broadest measure of international trade because it includes income payments and government transfers.

Instant Insights /

Corporate America Is Repatriating a Fraction of Foreign Profits

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