Good morning, CFOs. The 15% global minimum tax is here, and it is raising corporate tax payments—just not in the U.S.

Johnson & Johnson, Baxter International and Zimmer Biomet are all warning investors that the 2021 international tax deal will make them pay higher taxes this year as Switzerland, South Korea, Japan and European Union countries implement the accord.

U.S. companies that enjoyed single-digit tax rates in some foreign countries now must pay at least 15% in each. But even though Treasury officials were crucial in forging the international accord and President Biden has pushed to implement it, Congress hasn’t changed U.S. tax law to conform to it. Republicans generally oppose the global deal, contending that Biden administration negotiators gave away too much of the U.S. tax base.

So for now, the U.S. isn’t directly collecting any money from domestic or foreign companies because of the deal.

J&J is forecasting a roughly 1.5-percentage-point increase in its tax rate. Joseph Wolk, J&J’s chief financial officer, told analysts recently that the global minimum tax, as it stands now, is “reducing U.S. incentives for innovation and resulting in U.S.-based multinational companies paying more tax revenue to foreign governments.”

Some readers might get this email on a delay because of technical difficulties that we are working to fix. This email was sent at 7 a.m. ET.

🗓️ Earnings

• Amazon
• Apple
• Clorox
• Meta Platforms
• Shell

📈 Economic indicators

The Institute for Supply Management releases its Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for January.

U.S. companies have increasingly relied on foreign-born workers to fill their open accounting and finance positions over the past decade as a shortfall of accountants deepens.

Public companies take the first step for filing an H-1B visa petition for U.S. accounting and finance-related positions by filing labor condition applications to the U.S. Department of Labor. Applications for these jobs climbed 31%, to 4,763, in 2023 compared to a decade earlier, although they were down 10% from 2022. That’s according to a review of Department of Labor data by accounting professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Drexel University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and City University of Hong Kong.

That’s part of the roughly 138,000 applications that companies submitted for initial employment under the visa program in 2023, up 37% from a decade earlier.

The need for these workers has grown as companies grapple with a dearth of skilled accountants. More workers in the accounting profession are retiring without an adequate pipeline of entrants to fill the gap. Fewer people are picking accounting as their career, citing low salaries compared with industries such as tech and banking. Companies have boosted salaries and sought temporary help to strengthen their finance teams, but those actions haven’t gone far enough.

Recent graduates typically apply for H-1B visas through their employers after accepting a job offer. Companies then submit a LCA, seeking H-1B visas for their new hires. Businesses can apply for H-1B work visas for each foreign employee specified in their application. The U.S. government uses a lottery to randomly select applications when demand for the visas exceeds the available spots. The annual cap for initial visa applicants is 85,000.

The data on these applications represent the minimum demand for immigrant workers because the same application can be used to apply for H-1B visas for more than one person with the same job description.

—Mark Maurer

The Financial Accounting Standards Board says it plans to conduct more research around its proposal to require public companies to further break down labor and other operating expenses that appear on their income statements.

The accounting rule-maker issued the proposal last July, leading several companies to argue that the changes would pose significant costs and not aid their investors.

Under the proposal, companies would be required to further break down inventory expenses by sharing inventory purchases and other amounts. Companies’ inventory expenses would include costs as manufacturers incur them.

In response to companies’ concerns, the board said its staff would research alternatives to aspects of the proposal, such as revising the required expense category to inventory expense instead of inventory and manufacturing expense.

—Mark Maurer

The Federal Reserve signaled it was thinking about when to lower interest rates but hinted a cut wasn’t imminent when it held rates steady at its first policy meeting of the year on Wednesday.

The central bank held its benchmark federal-funds rate steady in a range between 5.25% and 5.5%, the highest level in more than two decades, as it awaits more convincing evidence that a sharp downturn in inflation at the end of last year will endure.

• Powell Navigates ‘Toxic’ Politics of Rate Cuts as Election Nears
• Fed Shouldn’t Take Too Long to Conclude Inflation Is Beaten
• What’s the Right Interest Rate for the Fed Anyway?

• Walmart plans to open or expand 150 stores in the U.S. over the next five years, reversing a strategy that had focused on keeping its store count flat.
• EBay will pay $59 million to settle the federal government’s allegations that thousands of pill presses and encapsulating machines were sold on its popular online marketplace.
• Media entrepreneur Byron Allen is throwing his hat in the ring for Paramount Global, his second attempt in less than a year to acquire the home of CBS and the Paramount Hollywood studio.
• Shares of New York Community Bancorp plummeted 38% Wednesday after the company swung to a fourth-quarter loss and slashed its dividend to shore up capital following its purchase of the assets of the collapsed Signature Bank.
• The case that brought down Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package at Tesla was driven by a lawyer who spent decades representing big companies like Goldman Sachs and 21st Century Fox, and a shareholder who played drums in a heavy metal band.

📰 Other headlines

• MetLife Net Income Plunges Despite Revenue Surge
• Qualcomm 1Q Revenue Tops Estimates on Growth in Handsets, Automotive
• Adidas Earnings Beat Guidance After Decision Not to Write Off Most Yeezy Inventory
• The Messenger Is Closing Less Than a Year After Its Launch
• Judge Dismisses Disney’s Suit Against Ron DeSantis

The Wall Street Journal's CFO Journal offers corporate leaders and professionals CFO analysis, advice and commentary to make informed decisions. We cover topics ranging from corporate tax accounting, regulation, capital markets, management and strategy.

Follow us on X @WSJCFO. The WSJ CFO Journal Team is reporters Kristin Broughton, Mark Maurer and Jennifer Williams, and Bureau Chief Walden Siew.

You can reach us by replying to any newsletter, or email Walden at walden.siew@wsj.com.