Major Tax Case for Tech Giants Reaches Supreme Court

A landmark tax case watched by Google, Apple, Facebook, and other tech giants concerning assets shifted overseas reached the Supreme Court on Monday.

Intel-owned Altera Corp. is appealing its loss in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over the validity of Internal Revenue Service regulations that force companies to include stock-option compensation among the assets that are valued for U.S. tax purposes when multinationals shift their intangible assets abroad. Stock-option compensation gives employees the right to purchase a company’s stock at a specified price in the future.

“This ...