US Supreme Court ponders meaning of ‘income’ in tax dispute

The U.S. Supreme Court is set on Tuesday to consider a challenge to the legality of a tax targeting owners of foreign corporations that could undermine efforts at imposing a wealth tax on the very rich in a case that has already sparked controversy over a call for Justice Samuel Alito to recuse. The justices were due to hear arguments in an appeal by Charles and Kathleen Moore – a retired couple from Redmond, Washington couple – of a lower court's decision rejecting their challenge to the tax on foreign company earnings, even though those profits had not been distributed. The one-time "mandatory repatriation tax" (MRT), which applied to taxpayers owning at least 10% of certain foreign corporations, was part of a 2017 Republican-backed tax bill signed into law by former President Donald Trump.