U.S. companies won some concessions from the Internal RevenueService (IRS) following proposed regulations that would soften theblow of a new foreign tax—but the rules didn't go as far as thebusiness community had hoped.

The agency issued guidance Wednesday that would in some waysallow businesses to minimize the hit when calculating how much theyowe for the new levy on their GILTI, or global intangible low-taxincome. Companies have to allocate only half—instead of all—ofcertain domestic expenses to foreign subsidiaries, whicheffectively lowers their GILTI liabilities, according to theregulations.

The IRS also gave companies some leeway to take advantage oftheir unused foreign tax credits after they voiced concerns thatthe law wouldn't do enough to account for the taxes paid to foreigngovernments.