Lowering Profits Seen as Tactic to Ease New US 15% Corporate Tax

There’s an emerging quirk to the new tax aimed at forcing some big companies to pay more: They can still keep paying less—simply by reporting lower profits. 

The corporate alternative minimum tax that took effect last year requires large, profitable US companies to pay at least 15% in taxes on the “book income” they report on their financial statements. That’s supposed to make it harder for them to pay little or nothing by using tax deductions, credits, and other advantages to reduce their taxable profit, as many have done in the past.

But the rules dictating the information reported on ...