Planning Options to Defer the Recognition of Subpart F or GILTI Income- Section 962 Election vs. High-Tax Exception: The Epic Showdown

Planning Options to Defer the Recognition of Subpart F or GILTI Income- Section 962 Election vs. High-Tax Exception: The Epic Showdown

Tax Law
By Anthony Diosdi Prior to the enactment of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Controlled Foreign Corporations (“CFCs”) were able to defer the U.S. taxation of foreign source income through tax planning. The 2017 significantly reduced (but did not eliminate) a CFC’s U.S. shareholder’s ability to defer the U.S. taxation of foreign source income. This article will discuss two remaining options available to CFC shareholders to defer the recognition of U.S. tax on foreign source income. CFC shareholders can make either a so-called 962 election or a high-tax exception (also known as a Section 954 election) to defer the taxation on foreign income. This article will compare and contrast each of these elections.Section 962 ElectionInternal Revenue Code Section 962 allows an individual U.S. shareholder of a CFC to elect…
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The IRS Clarifies the Regulations for the High-Tax Exception to GILTI

The IRS Clarifies the Regulations for the High-Tax Exception to GILTI

Tax Law
By Anthony Diosdi Global intangible low-taxed income (“GILTI”) is the excess of a U.S. shareholder’s net controlled foreign corporation (“CFC”) tested income for such taxable year over its net deemed tangible income return. Net CFC tested income is any excess of the U.S. shareholder’s pro rata share of the tested income of each CFC for which it is a U.S. shareholder over its pro rata share of each CFC’s tested loss. A U.S. shareholder’s net deemed tangible income return is 10 percent of the shareholder’s pro rata share of the CFC’s tax basis in tangible personal property used by its CFCs in the production of tested income (reduced by certain interest expense). Congress presumably intended that GILTI apply only to income that is subject to a low tax rate of…
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