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US Income Tax Case Study

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The United States enacted IRC 385 in 1969, which gave tax authorities the power to determine if intercompany loans were, in substance, equity investments. The tax authorities believed then that characterising intercompany loans as equity would resolve the thin capitalisation issue. If the IRS could deem intercompany loans to be investments, it could treat the interest payments as dividends, which are not tax deductible. However, the tax authorities eventually determined these tools were inadequate. In 1989, Congress enacted (IRC) section 163(j) to address the concern of US earnings being “stripped out” in the form of interest payments on debt by a U.S. subsidiary to its foreign parent company. The concern was that the U.S. subsidiary would receive a U.S. tax deduction that reduces its U.S. taxable income while the interest paid to the foreign-based parent corporation may not be subject to U.S. withholding tax (or subject to a reduced rate) under various income tax treaties.

The current U.S. earnings stripping rule limits the deductibility of “disqualified interest expense”. Interest expense paid with respect to a debt owed to or guaranteed by related parties is treated as “disqualified interest expense” if such interest is not subject to U.S. withholding tax …show more content…

Even if a debt-to-equity ratio exceeds 1.5 to 1, a U.S. corporation is allowed current deductions as long as its cash flow is considered sufficient to service the existing debt level. Under the current rules, a U.S. corporation is allowed to deduct all of its interest expense as long as the net interest expense (interest expense minus interest income) does not exceed 50% of its adjusted taxable income. Adjusted taxable income is determined by adjusting a corporation’s taxable income for certain non-cash items (e.g., depreciation) and it roughly equals that corporation’s pre-interest cash

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