Congress is expected this fall to repeal a tax break for US exporters called the “foreign sales corporation" | Norton Rose Fulbright
August 1, 2003 |
By Keith Martin in Washington, DC
MINOR MEMOS: Congress is expected this fall to repeal a tax break for US exporters called the “foreign sales corporation” and to replace it with other corporate tax benefits. Repeal of the FSC provision will give it at least $50 billion to spend. Among the ideas under consideration is allowing US multinationals that are holding income outside the US tax net in offshore corporations a one-year window to repatriate the income to the US at a reduced tax rate . . . A US appeals court said that a gas pipeline company could depreciate gas gathering lines that take gas from the field to a central pipeline over seven years for tax purposes, even though the rest of the pipeline must be depreciated over 15 years. This is the latest in a series of conflicting court decisions on the issue. The cases are important because they might open the door for some equipment at power plants — for example, baghouses that trap fly ash — to be depreciated more quickly than the rest of the power plant. The case is Saginaw Bay Pipeline Co. v. United States. The court released its decision on July 30.
