海外现金难解美企国内之渴

Emerson Electric Co. has $2 billion of cash in the bank. But this year it had to borrow money in the U.S. to help buy back shares, distribute dividends and even pay its taxes.

艾默生电气公司(Emerson Electric Co.)在银行存有20亿美元现金。但今年该公司在美国不得不借钱用于回购股票、发放股息甚至是缴纳税款。

That's because 'substantially all' of Emerson's cash is in Europe and Asia, according to the company's filings with securities regulators. The maker of power-plant and data-center equipment could always bring that cash back home, but it would be taxed at the 35% rate on corporate profits minus whatever tax it has already paid overseas.

据该公司提交给证券监管机构的备案文件显示，这是因为艾默生绝大部分现金都在欧洲和亚洲。这家发电厂及数据中心设备生产商随时可以将这些现金转回美国国内，但公司利润减去已经在海外缴纳的税款后需按35%的税率缴税。

As a result, Emerson says, it brings its foreign cash holdings back to the U.S. only if that can be 'accomplished tax efficiently.' In its most recent fiscal year, that meant bringing back just $500 million, then using debt to cover other obligations.

因此，艾默生说，只有在考虑缴税后不亏太多的情况下，该公司才会把海外现金资产转回美国。在最近一个财年，这意味着它只能带回五亿美元，然后通过发债来满足其他现金需要。

At a time when American companies hold near record amounts of cash, many are surprisingly cash poor at home. That doesn't mean they could suddenly run out of money to pay their bills. But it does mean there could be unseen limits on their ability to pay dividends and buy back shares.

正当美国企业持有的现金额接近历史高点之际，很多公司在国内却出人意料地面临现金短缺。这并不意味着它们可能会突然没钱支付账单，但确实意味着它们派息和回购股票的能力可能存在着无形的限制。

With billions of dollars overseas that may never come back, the Securities and Exchange Commission is concerned that companies haven't been presenting investors with an honest appraisal of their liquidity. As a result, regulators are pressing companies to more clearly lay out how much of their cash is in the U.S. and how much is overseas and potentially encumbered by U.S. taxes.

在海外有数十亿美元现金可能永远无法回到美国的情况下，美国证券交易委员会(Securities and Exchange Commission，简称：SEC)担心，企业没有向投资者提供诚实的流动性评估情况。因此，监管机构开始敦促企业更明确地列出有多少现金在美国国内，有多少在海外并可能因美国的缴税问题而难以回到美国。

Those disclosures are rolling in, and they are revealing the extent to which U.S. tax policies -- along with corporations' efforts to get around them -- have distorted American companies' balance sheets.

这些情况开始陆续披露出来，揭示出美国税收政策及公司避税举措导致美国企业资产负债状况失真的程度。

Illinois Tool Works Inc., a diversified manufacturer, had $2.1 billion in cash at the end of September, but none of that was in the U.S., where it generates more than 40% of its revenue. At the end of last year, Johnson & Johnson Co. kept all of its $24.5 billion in cash outside of the U.S. General Electric Co. had only about a third of its $85.5 billion in cash in the U.S. at the end of September, even though the U.S. accounted for about 45% of the conglomerate's revenue.

截至9月底，从事多种业务的制造商Illinois Tool Works Inc.有21亿美元现金，但都不在美国国内。该公司有逾40%的收入是在美国创造的。去年底，强生公司(Johnson & Johnson Co.)全部245亿美元现金都在海外。截至9月底，通用电气(General Electric Co.)的855亿美元现金中只有约三分之一在美国国内，尽管美国业务占该企业集团收入的约45%。

Whirlpool Corp. had 85% of its cash offshore at the end of last year, and Microsoft Corp. had about 87% overseas as of Sept. 30. Truck-parts supplier Wabco Holdings Inc. had only 3% of its cash in the U.S. at the end of last year and is buying back shares with borrowed money, but 91% of its sales are generated overseas.

去年底，惠而浦(Whirlpool Corp.)有85%的现金在海外。截至9月30日，微软(Microsoft Corp. )有约87%的现金在海外。去年底，卡车零部件供应商Wabco Holdings Inc.只有约3%的现金在美国，但91%的销售收入是在海外创造的。该公司目前正用借来的钱回购股票。

Each of these companies is grappling with a growing problem that comes from keeping Uncle Sam away from their foreign income: How to round up enough cash in the U.S. to cover items like dividends, share repurchases, debt repayments and pension contributions.

因为它们不想让“山姆大叔动它们的海外收入，上述每家公司都在努力应对一个日益严峻的问题：如何在美国筹得足够多的现金来满足派息、股票回购、偿债和退休金发放等现金需要。

For now, easy borrowing terms give companies some ready options for closing the gap. But having to resort to such workarounds introduces extra risk and expense, that makes some chief financial officers uncomfortable.

目前，宽松的借贷条款使公司有了一些弥补现金缺口的方便选择。但若采取这类手段，会带来额外的风险和支出，令一些首席财务长感到不快。

'You end up with the really peculiar result where you are borrowing money in the U.S. while you show cash on the balance sheet that is trapped overseas,' said Bruce Nolop, former chief financial officer of Pitney Bowes and E-Trade Financial and now a director at Marsh & McLennan. 'It is a totally inefficient capital structure.'

必能宝公司(Pitney Bowes)和E-Trade Financial前首席财务长诺洛普(Bruce Nolop)说，最终的结果非常怪异，你在美国国内借钱，而海外资产负债表上却显示有现金盈余，这种资本结构非常低效。他现在威达信集团(Marsh & McLennan)任董事。

Illinois Tool Works, J&J, GE, Whirlpool, Microsoft and Wabco declined to comment.

Illinois Tool Works、强生公司、通用电气、惠而浦、微软和Wabco均不予置评。

With lawmakers and the White House working to come up with a package of tax increases and spending cuts to trim the deficit and head off the 'fiscal cliff,' there is new impetus to change the corporate tax structure. There is also broad agreement that the current system, in which foreign earnings are kept offshore and untaxed, isn't working. But lawmakers and businesses disagree on a fix.

国会议员和白宫在努力制定一揽子增税及减支方案，以便减少赤字，避免跌落“财政悬崖。在这种情况下，改变公司税结构就有了新的动力。此外，人们普遍认为，将海外收益留在海外而不对其征税的现行体系成效不彰。但国会议员和企业界在如何解决这一问题上存在分歧。

The businesses want to pay taxes only in the country where profits are earned. They argue that being able to move their funds back to the U.S. freely would spur capital spending and help create jobs. As part of its proposal to lower the corporate tax rate to 28%, the Obama administration wants to expand the tax on foreign income to all income earned overseas.

企业想只在获得利润的国家缴税。这些企业认为，如果能够自由地把资金转移回美国，可以刺激资本支出，并有助于创造就业岗位。奥巴马政府希望把外国收入所得税的征收范围扩大到所有在海外获得的收入，这是其把企业税率降低到28%的提案的一部分。

In a report earlier this year, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. analyst Dane Mott found that only about 600 of 1,000 U.S. multinationals that have retained foreign profits overseas broke out how much cash they held outside the U.S. For those companies, it was about $588 billion, or about 60% of their total cash. Meanwhile, America's biggest companies generate only about a third of their revenue outside the U.S., according to Thomson Reuters.

摩根大通(J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.)的分析师莫特(Dane Mott)在今年早些时候的一份报告中指出，在1,000家将海外盈利留存在国外的美国跨国企业中，仅有大约600家公司公布了他们在美国之外存有多少现金。这大约600家公司在海外拥有的现金约为5,880亿美元，相当于其现金总额的60%左右。同时，汤森路透(Thomson Reuters Corp.)的数据显示，美国的大型企业仅有大约三分之一的营收来自海外。

'If shareholders are thinking about cash balances being theirs, they may need to haircut those cash balances,' Mr. Mott said. 'Cash balances are not necessarily all there -- available for dividends and buybacks.'

莫特说，如果股东认为现金盈余都是自己的，那么他们得把这个盈余打个折扣；并非所有的现金盈余都会用来派息或是回购股票。

The heavy imbalance between overseas and domestic cash at many U.S. companies in part reflects international expansion into new and sometimes more lucrative markets. Businesses may choose to pile up foreign cash to expand globally, paying for new facilities and overseas acquisitions.

许多美国企业在海外和国内的现金保有水平严重不平衡在一定程度上反映出，企业正在向新的（也许也是更加有利可图的）海外市场进行扩张。企业可以选择在海外积累大量现金，从而在全球扩张，支付购买新设备和海外并购的花费。

Yet the percentage of cash that companies hold overseas often exceeds the percentage of revenue they generate outside the U.S. Enter the U.S. tax system, which is structured so that companies can cut their tax bill by shifting income offshore to lower-tax countries. The system also discourages companies from bringing home profits earned overseas because of the tax cost.

不过，企业在海外持有的现金比例常常超过了他们在海外创造的营收的比例。根据美国的税收体系，企业可以通过把收入转移到税率更低的国家来减少所需缴纳的税款。但是由于税收带来的成本，美国的税收体系也导致企业不愿把海外赚取的利润转到国内。

Emerson has expanded globally and says that 59% of its revenue now comes from outside the U.S. Its sales and earnings fell late last year but have recovered. While virtually all of its cash is overseas, the bulk of its expenses are at home and use all the cash it generates in the U.S.

艾默生一直在全球进行扩张，该公司表示，目前该公司59%的营收来自海外。去年年末，该公司的销售和利润曾出现下降，但是目前已经恢复。尽管几乎所有的现金都在海外，其大部分花费都在国内进行，并且使用了在美国创造的所有现金。

In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the company spent $2.4 billion on dividends, share buybacks, debt repayment and pension contributions, based on calculations from its regulatory filings. It also paid out $800 million in federal and state taxes, a spokesman said. To cover the obligations, the company increased its commercial paper borrowings to $936 million from $588 million a year earlier and added long-term debt.

从该公司提交给监管机构的文件可以计算得知，在截至9月30日的财年，该公司把24亿美元用于支付股息、回购股票、偿债和支付退休金。一名发言人说，该公司还支付了8亿美元的联邦税款和州税款。为了满足这些需求，公司的商业票据欠款从一年前的5.88亿美元增加到了9.36亿美元，并新增了一些长期债务。

'Were it not for a combination of additional debt and repatriated earnings, EMR would likely be facing a shortfall in U.S. cash,' J.P. Morgan analyst Steve Tusa wrote recently, referring to Emerson by its stock symbol.

摩根大通的分析师Steve Tusa最近写道，要不是通过额外举债以及把海外的利润转回国内获得的现金，艾默生在美国可能面临现金短缺。

Emerson said it has a 'conservative financial structure' that provides strength and flexibility. Keeping cash outside the U.S. doesn't 'impede our ability to fund our growth initiatives and cash returns to shareholders,' a spokesman said in a written reply to questions.

艾默生说，公司的财务结构趋于保守，这样既保证了财力又保证了灵活性。一名发言人在书面答复提问时曾写道，把现金留在美国之外不会影响我们为公司的增长计划注资以及向股东支付现金回报。

The SEC is pressing companies on their cash holdings. In a June exchange with Whirlpool, the SEC said that disclosing how much cash is overseas 'would illustrate that some investments are not presently available to fund domestic operations such as corporate expenditures or acquisitions without paying a significant amount of taxes upon their repatriation.'

SEC正在就现金问题向美国的企业施加压力。今年6月，SEC在写给惠而浦的一份材料中指出，如果惠而浦披露在海外的现金规模就可以看出，如果不支付大额税费从而调回海外资金的话，就无法为国内的某些经营活动提供资金，比如企业支出或并购。

In response, Whirlpool, which holds 85% of its cash in foreign subsidiaries, said its intent is to 'permanently reinvest these funds outside of the U.S.' If the funds were to be repatriated, Whirlpool said, it 'would be required to accrue and pay applicable U.S. taxes.'

作为回应，惠而浦表示，该公司的目的是把这些资金永久地投资海外。惠而浦有85%的现金留存在海外的子公司。惠而浦说，如果把资金转回国内，就得在美国支付相应的税费。

Diversified manufacturer Dover Corp. has about two-thirds of its cash abroad, while 60% of its revenue comes from the U.S. 'Using domestic cash to fund things like debt, dividends, and to grow -- sometimes there are constraints,' said Brad Cerepak, Dover's chief financial officer.

多元化制造商都福集团(Dover Corp.)三分之二的现金在海外，该公司60%的营收来自美国。都福的首席财务长塞莱帕克(Brad Cerepak)说，公司在利用国内现金偿债、支付股息和为增长进行投资时，有时会遇到资金上的束缚。