Treasury outlines new corporate tax rules

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department on Tuesday set broad rules for a new tax on stock repurchases that had been created under a law signed by President Joe Biden this year, largely rejecting business lobbyists’ efforts to narrow its scope.

The initial guidance was issued ahead of more detailed regulations that are expected to be released early next year. Tax experts said it was likely to yield more revenue for the federal government than if officials had granted business groups’ request to carve particular types of buybacks out of the tax.

The department also released initial guidance Tuesday for a second, further-reaching tax included in the Inflation Reduction Act: an alternative minimum tax on large corporations that use deductions and credits in the tax code to reduce their effective federal tax rates below 15 percent. The corporate income tax rate has been set at 21 percent since 2018, when a sweeping set of tax cuts signed by former President Donald Trump took effect.

The minimum tax guidance sets criteria for which companies must pay that new tax. “Critically,” Treasury officials wrote in a news release, “it also gives smaller corporations an easy method for demonstrating that the new alternative minimum tax does not apply to them.”

The buybacks tax was included as one of several revenue raisers in the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law over the summer. The act seeks to reduce prescription drug prices for seniors on Medicare and decrease premiums for some Americans who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. It also includes $370 billion in tax credits and federal spending meant to encourage the deployment of low-emission energy technologies to fight climate change.