States Swiveling to Pandemic Pause Plans to Tax Foreign Income

Multinational corporations will have to wait longer to find out how states will tax their offshore earnings as legislatures pivot to handling the public health crisis.

Legislative sessions opened in January with expectations that several states might pass legislation or issue guidance on how state tax obligations are affected by the 2017 federal tax law’s global intangible low-taxed income, or GILTI. The business-focused Council on State Taxation (COST) had high hopes, particularly for action in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Utah, which all tax the new category of foreign income but offer little guidance to taxpayers.

COST had pushed for ...