Many American companies will love to move the big pot of money they make overseas back to the United States, saying they can use the money to create jobs, just as they are pushing in Congress for a tax break to do so The Tide source states.

Critics say there is a big problem with that idea: It has been tried before, and it does not work.

But as Congress continues to grapple with mounting budget deficits, and amid talk of revamping the tax system, the corporate tax holiday could get traction.

Generally, the US corporate tax rate stands at 35 per cent, the highest in the industrialised world. But companies don’t have to pay that rate on profits made outside of the United States. So lots of companies shelter profits offshore.

The tax holiday would lower the corporate tax rate to 5.25 per cent for big companies such as the bill’s proponents including Google, Oracle and Cisco if they move their overseas profits to the United States.

Proponents say the move would bring as much as $1trillion into the United States, spur big companies to create jobs and give Treasury more revenue to work with to slash mounting federal deficits.

But tax holiday opponents, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, are skeptical.

They say a similar holiday in 2004 didn’t spur companies to hire more or grow.

Nevertheless, last week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers filed a bill that would reduce the corporate tax rate to 5.25 per cent on offshore earnings brought back to the United States.

The measure has big guns behind it. Leading the way is a group called WIN America, which stands for Working to Invest. Now, that includes three dozen major corporations, including some in technology, energy and health care.

The US Chamber of Commerce supports it as does House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. So does Andy Stern, who used to run the Service Employees International Union.

“While fundamental tax reform will take time, repatriation is an interim step that we can take to encourage businesses to bring investment back into our country,” Cantor said in a statement.

One company in the coalition pushing for the tax holiday is the drug maker Pfizer, whose untaxed foreign profits topped $48.2bn in 2010, according to accounting expert, Jack Ciesielski.

But independent research suggests that the holiday might not do much for the economy or deficits.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates while tax revenue would jump by $25bn in the first few years, it would ultimately cost taxpayers $80bn over the next decade.

In a congressional hearing last week, an economic policy specialist for the Congressional Research Service, Jane Gravelle, said a similar corporate tax holiday that Congress passed in 2004 didn’t create new jobs to the economy, as intended. Instead, companies paid shareholders and hoarded money overseas anticipating another tax holiday.

“We’ve seen this movie before. After the 2004 tax holiday, corporations parked even more money offshore in anticipation of a sequel,” said a Treasury Department official. “If Congress were to offer a second stand-alone tax holiday, companies would have an even bigger incentive to keep their profits overseas in the hopes that it would become a trilogy.”

Geithner has said in testimony to Congress that he wants “comprehensive reform” that lowers corporate tax rates, broadens the base and gives incentives for people and companies to invest more in the United States.

The business community, itself, isn’t unified in support of a one-time tax holiday.

At the same hearing last week, a panel of chief financial officers said they thought a one-time tax holiday would be a mistake. The group included Edward Rapp of Caterpillar, Mark Buthman of Kimberly-Clarke, Greg Hayes of United Technologies and James Crines of Zimmer Holdings.

“Done in isolation, I don’t believe it accomplishes the goal of leveling the playing field,” Crines said in the hearing.