Rollback of Foreign Tax Credit Rules Helps Companies, For Now

For the moment, the government’s big rollback of foreign tax credit rules is a clear win for multinational drug makers, manufacturers, and companies doing business in Brazil. What happens next isn’t so clear.

The IRS and the Treasury Department said in July they were considering a revamp of their controversial rules on when companies can take the foreign tax credit, after a year and a half of taxpayers’ complaints about the new rules and multiple smaller-bore attempts to fix them.

For now, the government says, companies can mostly go back to following the previous, more corporate-friendly rules on when and ...