Several of the court’s conservative justices seemed skeptical of an argument against taxing undistributed income from investments in foreign companies.
The U.S. Supreme Court is set on Tuesday to consider a challenge to the legality of a tax targeting owners of foreign corporations that could undermine efforts at imposing a wealth tax on the very rich in a case that has already sparked controversy over a call for Justice Samuel Alito to recuse. The justices were due to hear arguments in an appeal by Charles and Kathleen Moore - a retired couple from Redmond, Washington couple - of a lower court's decision rejecting their challenge to the tax on foreign company earnings, even though those profits had not been distributed. The one-time "mandatory repatriation tax" (MRT), which applied to taxpayers owning at least 10% of certain foreign corporations, was part of a 2017 Republican-backed tax bill signed into law by former President Donald Trump.
The case before the justices Tuesday could have sweeping implications for the U.S. tax system and derail proposals from some Democrats to create a wealth tax.
Chief Justice John Roberts may have given away the outcome in Moore v. United States on Tuesday as he wrapped up the two-hour oral argument session. “Thank you, counsel, the case is dismiss—submitted to the court,” he told the lawyers, quickly correcting his verbal flub midsentence.The high-profile tax case saw the justices and the lawyers spar over many moving parts: a tax-code change that was made five years ago, the Sixteenth Amendment, and the idea of what, precisely, counts as “income” unde