U.S. Tax Code.

• Author: SCRIVNER, PETER C.
• Position: Legislation on regulation of export tax incentives to comply with international norms - Brief Article

The House Ways and Means Committee has passed legislation that will bring the U.S. tax code into compliance with international tax and export rules. This legislation results from a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling last February, which asserted that a U.S. corporate tax shelter that reduces corporate income by about $4 billion a year, violates the WTO trade rules.

Now the bill has to go before the entire House and Senate.

The tax shelter apparatus, known as foreign sales corporations (FSCs), were deemed by the European Union, which brought the complaint, as a means of creating illegal export subsidies. Current U.S. law permits U.S. companies a tax break on 15 to 30 percent of their...