Group Says IRS Should Still Allow Old Method for Currency Gains

The IRS and the Treasury Department should allow companies’ subsidiaries to keep using a method to determine their foreign-currency gains and losses that’s been in use since 1991, a business group said.

Companies’ qualified business units (QBUs) should be able to continue using the “earnings and capital method” as long as they make the current rate election and annual recognition election called for in Section 987 regulations proposed in November, the National Foreign Trade Council said in a comment letter released late Monday.

QBUs are units of larger companies that do business separately and maintain their own books and records. ...