Associated PressWASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a tax on foreign income over a challenge backed by business and anti-regulatory interests, declining their invitation to weigh in on a broader, never-enacted tax on wealth.The justices, by a 7-2 vote, left in place a provision of a 2017 tax law that is expected to generate $340 billion, mainly from the foreign subsidiaries of domestic corporations that parked money abroad to shield it from U.S. taxes.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his majority opinion that “nothing in this opinion should be read to authorize any hypothetical congressional effort to tax both an entity and its shareholders or partners on the same undistributed income realized by the entity.” But Kavanaugh said the tax the Moores disputed was akin to other taxes, including those on foreign-earned income and partnerships. A ruling for the Moores could have called into question those other provisions of the tax code and threatened losses to the U.S. Treasury of several trillion dollars, Kavanaugh noted, echoing the argument made by the Biden administration.
Greenberg pointed to a separate opinion from Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, that agreed the Moores should lose this case. But Barrett also sided with the dissenters in arguing that income has to be realized — in essence, received — to be taxed in accord with the Constitution.