Supreme Court Suggests Support for 2017 Foreign Earnings Tax (1)

US Supreme Court justices signaled they are inclined to uphold a 2017 tax on American-owned companies’ foreign profits, while trying to avoid a sweeping ruling that could give a green light to proposals for a future wealth tax.

Hearing arguments in Washington, key justices suggested the tax, which aimed to collect hundreds of billions of dollars on a one-time basis, wasn’t fundamentally different from other levies imposed by Congress over the years.

The case marks a rare test of the Constitution’s Sixteenth Amendment, ratified in 1913 to let Congress levy an income tax. Two Washington state residents, fighting a $14,729 ...