'Thank you Donald Trump': President praised on social media following Apple's 20,000 jobs revelation

Apple is planning to build a new corporate campus and hire 20,000 US workers in an expansion driven in part by a tax cut that will enable the iPhone maker to take an estimated $245bn (£177bn) back to its home country.

The Apple pledge, announced on Wednesday (17 January), comes less than a month after Congress approved a sweeping overhaul of the US tax code championed by President Donald Trump that will increase corporate profits.

Besides dramatically lowering the standard corporate tax rate, the reforms offer a one-time break on cash held overseas.

Apple plans to take advantage of that provision by taking back most of its offshore cash, generating a tax bill of about $38bn based on the temporary tax rate of 15.5 percent on foreign profits.

Apple has earmarked about $75bn of the money currently overseas to finance $350bn in spending during the next five years. The spree will include the new campus, new data centres and other investments.

Most of that $350bn reflects money that Apple planned to spend with its suppliers and manufacturers in the US anyway, even if corporate taxes had stayed at the old 35 percent rate.

Analysts have predicted that most of those overseas profits will flow into stock buybacks and dividend payments. That is what happened the last time a one-time break on offshore profits was offered more than a decade ago.

The new law lowers the corporate tax rate to 21 percent on US profits while providing a sharper discount on overseas cash this year.

Other US companies, including American Airlines, AT&T and Comcast, have given $1,000 bonuses to all their workers as a share of their gains from the lower rate on domestic earnings.

Excluding banks and other financial services companies, Moody's Investors Service estimated that corporate America had approximately $1.6tn in overseas cash, most of it in the technology industry, with Apple at the top of the heap.

Trump and lawmakers are hoping that companies use the extra money to raise wages, expand payrolls, open more offices and invest in new equipment.

The White House applauded Apple's commitment.

"Just as the president promised, making our businesses more competitive internationally is translating directly into benefits for the American worker, through increased wages, better benefits, and new jobs," White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said.

The company did not say how big the second campus would be or how many of the additional 20,000 workers it planned to hire would be based there. About 84,000 of Apple's 123,000 workers work in the US.

Cities across the US are likely to offer Apple tax breaks and other incentives to attract its business.

When Amazon announced last year that it would build a second headquarters in North America to expand beyond its Seattle home it received 238 proposals from cities and regions in the US, Canada and Mexico.

Amazon is expected to announce the winning bid later this year.

Apple is not openly soliciting bids from cities interested in its new campus

Cook told ABC that "large parts of [the return to the US] are a result of the tax reform". He added there were "large parts" that were going to happen anyway.

Twitter users have been praising Trump for his efforts.

And lastly, from the man himself: