Companies Eye Ways Around ‘Retail Glitch’ as Hope Dims for Fix

Businesses are eyeing accounting maneuvers to get around a glitch in the 2017 tax act as lawmakers have failed to pass a fix more than two years after the law’s enactment.

The drafting mistake blocked brick-and-mortar companies like restaurants and retailers that make interior renovations from a major business benefit in the law—the ability to fully and immediately write off certain capital expenses, rather than doing so piecemeal over time. In some cases, it makes those renovations more expensive than they would’ve been before the law went into effect.

As it’s grown increasingly apparent that a correction isn’t happening ...