[pishpash]

You make it sound like there was no alternative. You can also tax income when it's earned, instead of when it's repatriated. That's how individuals are taxed on their foreign income. There were also other variants proposed.

In any case, the reason that corporations lobbied so hard for this particular tax code change was that they actually needed to repatriate money ASAP. Interest rates are going up. Their operational tactic of borrowing low-interest money against their overseas cash to repurchase shares is ending and they needed their cash. They would have repatriated anyway. Now you can kiss that tax money goodbye, just like you can kiss goodbye to the tax money on the free stepped-up basis that large estates will be passing on for the eight years.