Is a Wealth Tax an Income Tax? It Matters: Stephen L. Carter

Moore v. United States, Thursday’s decision by the US Supreme Court on the Mandatory Repatriation Tax, would seem to affect relatively few taxpayers. But in rejecting a constitutional challenge to the MRT (as it’s known), the justices might have scattered some breadcrumbs about their attitudes toward a potentially more sweeping wealth tax.

The MRT was adopted in 2017 as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The tax code has long treated passive income earned by “American-controlled foreign corporations” as attributable to US shareholders even if the income has never been distributed. The MRT imposed a one-time tax ...