Barack Obama open to tax amnesty Mr Obama did not go into detail, but the plan echoes a proposal laid out in 2011 by Dave Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Under Mr Camp's plans, companies would have to pay a 5.25pc fee on any profits they had overseas, but they would then be able to bring those funds back into America without further penalties. At the moment, companies bringing profits back into the US are obliged are faced with a 35pc tax bill The issue has become a major headache for American corporations such as Apple, which is thought to keep around $100bn on its $145bn cash hoard outside the US, partly to avoid a massive levy. Tim Cook, chief executive of the iPad maker, told Senators in May that he wanted to see a "dramatic simplification" of America's tax law. However, the so-called repatriation tax has unexpected benefits for many overseas companies, including those in Britain. US businesses forced to keep their funds off shore have to find other ways to put that money to work, fuelling investment and acquisitions. Often the prospect of a major tax bill has inflated prices US companies are willing to pay for companies, which has a knock-on effect on companies across the board. The repatriation tax is thought to have been a factor in Microsoft's $8.5bn purchase of Skype, which is based in Luxembourg, and Hewlett-Packard's $11.1bn swoop on the British software firm Autonomy.