President Barack Obama's fiscal 2016 budget would impose a one-time 14 percent tax on some $2 trillion of accumulated U.S. corporate profits earned abroad and set up a 19 percent tax on future foreign earnings, a White House official said on Sunday.
Revenues from the one-time tax be used to fund infrastructure projects and fill a projected shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund.
Obama's fiscal 2016 budget, which is set to be released on Monday, is as much a political document as a fiscal roadmap. It would require approval from Congress to take effect and full approval by the Republican-controlled legislature is very unlikely.
The White House has long been critical of practices by U.S. companies that it views as avoiding tax responsibilities at home. The two proposals are part of a broader tax reform package that the Obama administration hopes will re-focus tax advantages toward middle-class Americans.