The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 2017 tax on American-owned businesses' foreign profits, rejecting an appeal that could have saved companies hundreds of billions of dollars.
Voting 7-2, the justices said Congress has the constitutional power to tax people and companies on their share of undistributed corporate income.
The case was being closely watched because of its potential implications for Democratic proposals to impose a wealth tax. The majority said it didn't need to rule on that or other hypothetical taxes.
"Those are potential issues for another day, and we do not address or resolve any of those issues here," Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the court.
He added that "Congress has long taxed shareholders of an entity on the entity's undistributed income, and it did the same" with the 2017 tax.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
