High-Tax Exemption to TCJA Rule Catching Political Heat - Law360 Tax Authority

John Warner, shareholder in the firm's Tax section, comments on a regulatory tweak to the 2017 tax overhaul that critics claim amounts to a corporate giveaway from the U.S. Treasury Department in Law360 Tax Authority's article "High-Tax Exemption to TCJA Rule Catching Political Heat."

“You can get there if you suspend a few customary rules of statutory interpretation, but it’s really tough to justify the elective exception if push ever came to shove,” said John Warner of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC. “Of course, push may never come to shove because it is difficult to envisage a scenario in which a taxpayer would object to the availability of the election once it has made one.”

Warner noted that “by reason of” is normally interpreted as “but for,” which would negate the possibility of applying this exception to GILTI income.