According to data published earlier this year, 70 U.S. companies hold $1.2 trillion in untaxed (by the United States) profits around the world, an 18-percent increase from a year earlier. Those firms and others unsuccessfully lobbied Congress in 2011 for a tax repatriation holiday — similar to the one enacted seven years ago within the 2004 American Jobs Creation Act.

Though legislative debate on a tax holiday has stalled, the presidential candidates differ on how to deal with a 35 percent U.S. corporate tax rate — highest among industrialized nations and an obstacle to increasing American jobs and production on U.S. soil.

In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Michael Faulkender talks about the debate over the corporate tax structure.